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MAM 

muni 

MAI  APR  2  8  1993 


DATE  DUE 


MAY  3 


1990 


Demco,  Inc.  38-293 


THE  LOEB  CLASSICAL  LIBRARY 

FOUNDED    BY    JAMES    LOEB,    LL.D. 
EDITED     BY 

t  T.  K.  PAGE,  C.H.,  I.ITT.H. 
E.  CAPPS,  PH.I>.,  IX.D.  W.  H.  D.  ROUSE,  MTT.D. 


OVID 

TRISTJA  EX  PONTO 


Laeta  fere  laetus  cecini,  cano  tristtci  trlstls. 

P.  iii.  9.  35. 


OVID 


i 

WITH  AN  ENGLISH  TRANSLATION 


TRISTIA     •    EX  PONTO 

•r 

MV 

ARTHUR    LESLIE    WHEELER 

AUJMNAE    I'HOFF.SSOR    OF    1.AT1N 
HHVN    MAW  It    COM.KUK 


CAMBRIDGE,    MASSACHUSETPS 

HARVARD    UNIVERSITY    PRESS 

LONDON 

WILLIAM   HEINEMANN    LTD 

MCM  XXXIX 


J 


First  printed  1924 
Reprinted  1939 


Printed  in  Great  Britain 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION    .,...«»  VJ1 

TlllSTIA 

BOOK    I  ,,.,•••  2 


158 


BOOK  II 

BOOK  III  ....-• 

BOOK  IV  ...••• 

BOOK  V  ..,..-» 

Ex     PONTO 

HOOK  I  ...•••• 

BOOK  II  ...•••• 

BOOK  III 

BOOK  IV  ••••••• 

INDEX  ,...«»••        491 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  works  of  Ovid  himself,  and  especially  the  auto- 
biography (T.  iv.  10),  supply  most  of  the  material 
for  a  sketch  of  his  life.  His  fame,  however,  caused 
him  to  be  mentioned  often  by  later  writers,  and 
these,  taken  together,  add  not  a  little  to  the  in- 
formation derived  from  his  own  poems. 

His  full  name  was  Publius  Ovidius  Naso,  and  he 
was  born  on  March  twentieth,  43  B.C.,  at  Sulmo,  the 
chief  town  of  the  Paeligni,  about  ninety  miles  by 
road  east  of  Rome.  The  family  was  of  old  equestrian 
rank,  and  inscriptions  prove  that  the  name  Ovidius 
was  common  only  in  the  region  of  Ovid's  birthplace. 
In  Sulmo,  now  Sulmona,  the  tradition  of  the  poet 
still  flourishes.  The  townspeople  point  out  to  the 
infrequent  tourist  his  statue  in  the  court  of  the 
Collegio  Ovidio,  the  chief  school  of  the  town,  and 
the  remains  of  his  villa,  the  Villa  Ovidio,  on  the  slopes 
of  a  neighbouring  mountain.  The  main  street  of 
the  town,  the  Corso  Ovidio,  preserves  his  name, 
and  the  letters  S.M.P.E.  ("  Sulmo  mihi  patria  est," 
T.  iv.  10.  3)  are  inscribed  on  the  fasades  of  monu- 
ments and  at  the  head  of  public  documents.  In 
folk-lore  also  and  popular  song  his  name  survives. 

But  though  the  statue  is  mediaeval,  though  the 
ruins  are  probably  not  connected  with  him,  and  the 
traditions  are  fancy,  the  beautiful  country  on  which 

vii 


INTRODUCTION 

Ovid  must  have  looked  is  true  to  his  description. 
Sulmona  lies  in  one  of  the  loveliest  vales  of  Italy,  sur- 
rounded by  towering  mountains  and  watered,  as 
Ovid  himself  says,  by  cold  streams.  As  one  views 
it  from  the  mountain  slopes  the  valley,  carefully 
tilled  and  dotted  with  vineyards  and  fruit  trees,  is 
like  a  vast  garden.  Here  lay  those  paternal  fields 
of  which  the  poet  speaks,  and  here  he  passed  the 
years  of  his  boyhood. 

Ovid's  father,  like  the  father  of  Horace,  was 
ambitious  for  his  sons  and  destined  them  for  an 
oratorical  career.  While  they  were  still  very  young 
Ovid  and  his  brother,  who  was  exactly  one  year 
older  than  the  poet,  were  taken  to  Rome  to  receive 
a  proper  training.  The  brother  displayed  a  decided 
gift  for  pleading,  but  Ovid  found  the  legal  grind 
distasteful.  He  tried  to  conform  to  his  father's 
practical  advice  but  the  inborn  impulse  was  too 
strong.  "  Whatever  I  tried  to  write,"  he  says, 
44  was  verse,"  and  the  quaint  anecdote  told  in  one 
of  the  late  Lives  probably  hits  off  the  situation  very 
well.  Once  when  Ovid  was  being  chastised  by  his 
angry  father,  says  the  Life,  the  squirming  boy 
cried  out  (in  verse  !),  "  Parce  mihi !  numquam  versi- 
ficabo,  pater  !  " 

But  though  "  he  lisped  in  numbers,"  he  neverthe- 
less persisted  half-heartedly  in  his  preparation  for 
a  practical  career  until  he  held  certain  minor  offices 
which  were  preliminary  to  the  quaestorship.  He 
became  a  triumvir  capitalis,  i.e.  one  of  the  board  of 
three  officials  who  had  charge  of  prisons  and  execu- 
tions and  possessed  judicial  powers  in  petty  cases. 
Ovid  was  probably  not  over  twenty-one  at  this 
time.  He  also  speaks  of  having  been  a  member  of 
viii 


INTRODUCTION 

the  centumviral  court  (which  dealt  with  questions 
of  inheritance)  and  of  having  served  as  a  single 
judge,  i.e.  as  a  sort  of  referee  in  private  lawsuits. 
As  a  triumvir  he  was  directly  in  line  for  the 
quaestorship  and  seems  to  have  had  a  right  to 
quaestorial  privileges,  but  his  tastes  and  frail  con- 
stitution led  him  to  renounce  a  public  career. 

Ovid's  thorough  education  under  such  distinguished 
teachers  as  the  rhetoricians  Arellius  Fuscus  and 
Porcius  Latro  was  not  wasted,  although  it  was  not 
applied  to  the  end  which  his  hard-headed  father 
had  urged.  Rhetoric  and  literature  formed  the 
major  part  of  the  training  of  those  who  were  qualify- 
ing themselves  for  public  life,  and  the  young  poet, 
as  we  learn  from  Seneca  the  Elder,  became  a  brilliant 
declaimer.  Poetry  was  much  studied  in  the  rhe- 
torical schools  of  the  day,  and  the  training  which 
Ovid  received  undoubtedly  laid  the  foundation  of 
that  wide  familiarity  with  myth  and  literature 
which  he  displays  in  his  work.  In  fact  Seneca  tells 
us  that  Ovid  transferred  to  his  own  verse  many  of 
the  pointed  remarks  of  his  teacher  Latro.  Even 
his  legal  training  was  not  entirely  wasted,  for  there 
are  traces  of  it,  in  his  work. 

Ovid  studied  at  Athens,  as  Horace  and  many 
other  young  Romans  had  done,  and  travelled  in 
Sicily  and  in  Asia  Minor.  It  is  probable  that  his 
sojourn  in  Athens  occurred  while  he  was  still  a 
student,  but  it  is  not  certain  that  the  other  journeys 
belong  to  the  same  period. 

Even  before  his  education  was  finished  he  had 
won  fame  as  a  poet  of  love.  He  was  giving  public 
recitations  of  his  Amores,  he  tells  us,  when  his 
"  beard  had  been  cut  but  once  or  twice  "  (T.  iv. 


INTRODUCTION 

10.  55  f.).  Undoubtedly  the  popularity  of  these 
youthful  poems  did  much  to  establish  the  conviction 
which  he  often  expresses  that  his  bent  was  erotic 
elegy  ;  he  considered  himself  the  lineal  successor 
of  Gallus,  Tibullus,  and  Propertius,  and  posterity 
has  accepted  him  at  his  word.  Thus  the  foundation 
of  that  fame  which  he  was  destined  to  deplore  so 
bitterly  was  laid  in  his  early  youth. 

In  these  youthful  days  Ovid  made  the  acquaintance 
of  many  poets.  His  relations  with  Vergil  and 
Tibullus  were  apparently  not  intimate,  but  he  was 
only  twenty-four  when  these  poets  died  (19  B.C.), 
and  it  is  probable  that  for  some  years  before  that 
date  both  had  been  in  poor  health  and  had  seldom 
been  seen  in  Rome.  Ovid  admired  Horace  but 
does  not  assert  that  he  knew  that  poet  personally. 
Propertius,  however,  he  knew  well,  and  he  mentions 
him,  together  with  Aemilius  Macer,  Ponticus,  and 
Bassus,  as  a  member  of  his  own  circle.  He  names 
besides  a  large  number  of  fellow  poets,  many  of 
whom  were  friends.  To  us  they  are  hardly  more 
than  names,  but  they  serve  to  illustrate  the 
breadth  of  Ovid's  literary  interests,  for  these  men 
worked  in  all  departments  of  poetic  composition. 
Ovid  was  always  a  generous  critic,  but  in  his  remarks 
during  his  exile  about  these  contemporaries  there 
is  the  additional  reason  for  generosity  that  he 
naturally  wished  to  speak  well  of  anybody  who 
might  help  him. 

Apart  from  literary  men,  professional  or  dilettanti, 
Ovid  had  a  very  wide  acquaintance  with  Roman 
society  in  general.  He  came  from  a  country  town 
and  he  was  not  noble,  but  his  rank  was  inherited 
and  his  fortune  was  considerable.  With  these  ad- 


INTRODUCTION 

vantages  it  was  easy  for  a  man  of  his  brilliant  talent 
and  agreeable  personality  to  know  everybody  worth 
knowing,  and  the  poems  from  exile  contain  the 
names  of  many  statesmen,  officials,  and  soldiers — 
fewer,  certainly,  than  he  must  have  known  since  he  is 
careful  not  to  name  any  to  whom  seeming  connexion 
with  an  exile  might  have  brought  offence.  More- 
over, many  of  those  whom  he  must  have  known 
in  his  youth  had  died  before  the  period  of  his  exile, 
and  these  are  mentioned  as  a  rule  only  when  they 
are  connected  in  some  way  with  the  living  to  whom 
he  made  his  appeals. 

To  the  members  of  Rome's  great  families  Ovid 
stood  rather  in  the  relation  of  a  client  to  patrons, 
although  this  relation  did  not  preclude  intimacy. 
Among  these  patrons  the  most  distinguished  man 
was  Marcus  Valerius  Messalla  Corvinus,  the  states- 
man, general,  and  orator,  whose  house  was  the  centre 
of  a  literary  circle  in  which  the  most  prominent 
member  was  Tibullus.  To  this  circle  Ovid  also 
undoubtedly  belonged.  Messalla  died  not  long 
before  Ovid  was  exiled,  perhaps  in  the  very  year  of 
his  exile  (A.D.  8),  and  he  had  probably  been  in- 
capacitated by  illness  for  several  years  before  his 
death.  It  was  Ovid's  appeal  to  the  great  man's 
sons  that  led  him  to  mention  the  father.  To  the 
house  of  Messalla  he  had  been  devoted  from  his 
earliest  years,  and  Messalla  himself  had  been  the 
first  to  encourage  him  to  publish  his  verse — un- 
doubtedly some  of  those  erotic  poems  which  later 
helped  to  ruin  the  poet.  Messalla  was,  in  Ovid's 
phrase,  "  the  guide  of  his  genius,"  and  the  poet 
wrote  a  tribute  to  him  at  his  death. 

Messalla  had  been  one  of  Augustus*  right-hand 

xi 


INTRODUCTION 

the  same  station  in  life  as  himself,  and  many  of 
these  are  named  in  the  Pontic  Epistles.  Since  at 
the  time  Ovid  was  writing  the  Tristia  he  did  not 
venture  to  name  his  friends,  the  question  arises 
whether  it  is  possible  to  identify  any  of  the  un- 
named recipients  of  the  Tristia  with  friends  who  are 
named  in  the  Pontic  Epistles.1  There  are  seventeen 
poems  of  the  Tristia  which  are  addressed  to  friends 
or  patrons.  Three  of  these,  as  the  tone  shows,  are 
addressed  to  patrons,  i.e.  to  men  who  were  superior 
to  Ovid  in  rank,  twelve  to  friends  of  his  own  status 
or  of  such  status  that  they  were  at  least  not  his 
superiors,  while  in  the  case  of  two  the  tone  supplies 
no  good  evidence  for  placing  them  in  one  class 
rather  than  the  other.  Now  Ovid  asserts  several 
times  that  "  only  two  or  three  "  of  his  friends 
showed  themselves  really  faithful  at  the  time  when 
disaster  befell  him  (T.  i.  5.  33,  "  vix  duo  tresve  "  ;  cf. 
Hi.  5.  10 ;  v.  4.  36,  etc.).  Examination  of  the 
Pontic  Epistles  shows  that  these  few  faithful  ones 
were  probably  Brutus,  Atticus,  Celsus,  and  possibly 
Carus.  To  these  we  should  add  his  patron-friend 
Cotta  Maximus.  By  comparing  the  Pontic  Epistles 
in  which  these  men  are  addressed  or  named  with 
the  seventeen  Tristia  we  may  assign  to  Brutus 
7\  iii.  4  (cf.  P.\.  1,  iii.  9,  iv.  6)  ;  to  Atticus  T.  v.  4 
(cf.  P.  ii.  4  and  7)  ;  to  Celsus  T.  i.  5,  iii.  6  (cf.  P.  i. 
9) ;  to  Carus  T.  iii.  5  (cf.  P.  iv.  13) ;  to  Cotta  Maximus 
T.  iv.  5,  v.  9  (cf.  P.  i.  5  and  9,  ii.  3  and  8,  iii.  2  and  5, 
iv.  16.  41  ff.)  ;  to  Messalinus  T.  iv.  4  (cf.  P.  i.  7, 
and  ii.  3).  The  reproach,  T.  i.  8,  is  very  possibly 
addressed  to  Macer  (cf.  P.  ii.  10).  Even  if  these 
identifications  are  accepted  there  remain  eight 

1  Cf.  especially  Graeber  (see  Bibliog.). 
xiv 


INTRODUCTION 

poems  whose  recipients  have  not  been  satisfactorily 
identified.  Of  these  eight  six  (T.  i.  7,  iv.  7,  v.  6, 
7,  12,  13)  are  addressed  to  men  who  were  apparently 
friends,  two  (T.  i.  9,  iii.  14)  are  uncertain,  though 
the  tone  of  T.  i.  9  is  perhaps  better  suited  to  a  young 
man  of  rank,  and  that  of  T.  iii.  14  to  a  poet-friend 
of  greater  age  than  Ovid. 

Numerous  other  friends  and  acquaintances — 
poets,  rhetoricians,  officials,  soldiers — appear  in  the 
Pontic  Epistles,  but  among  them  there  is  nobody 
whom  we  may  regard  as  the  probable  recipient  of 
any  poem  among  the  Tristia.  About  some  of  them 
we  know  only  what  Ovid  tells  us,  about  others  we 
can  glean  a  few  meagre  facts  from  other  sources. 
It  is  particularly  unfortunate  that,  with  the  exception 
of  Cotta  Maximus,  the  poet's  best  friends,  Celsus, 
Atticus,  Brutus,  and  Cams,  are  known  only  from  Ovid. 
All  efforts  to  identify  them  with  men  of  the  same 
names  mentioned  elsewhere  have  proved  unavailing. 

There  is  no  good  evidence  that  Ovid  had  ever 
been  intimate  with  any  member  of  the  imperial 
household.  The  approval  of  the  Emperor  to  which 
he  alludes  (T.  ii.  89  and  98,  cf.  542)  consisted  merely 
in  allowing  Ovid  to  retain  his  rank  as  a  knight.  In 
his  references  to  Augustus  the  poet  assumes  the 
tone  of  an  abject  suppliant  appealing  to  a  deity 
immeasurably  removed.  Even  if  there  had  been 
any  former  intimacy  it  would  have  been  difficult  to 
harmonize  it  with  such  an  attitude  as  this  and  it 
would  have  been  carefully  suppressed.  The  refer- 
ences to  Tiberius  and  his  son  Drusus,  to  Germanicus 
and  his  sons,  permit  the  same  general  inference : 
that  Ovid  had  probably  never  been  intimate  with 
any  of  them.  The  character  of  Germanicus  was 


XV 


INTRODUCTION 

so  affable  and  kindly  that  if  Ovid  had  ever 
known  him  well  one  might  expect  a  reference  to 
the  fact.  But  the  passages  in  which  Germanicus 
is  addressed  or  mentioned  show  that  Ovid's  hopes 
in  this  direction  were  based  upon  the  intercessions 
of  mutual  friends — Salanus  (P.  ii.  5),  Sextus  Pompey 
(P.  iv.  5),  Suillius  (P.  iv.  8),  etc. 

The  method  of  appeal  to  the  Empress  Livia 
Augusta  is  similar.  Ovid  hoped  to  influence  her 
through  his  wife  and  through  Marcia,  wife  of 
Paullus  Fabius  Maximus,  who  was  Augusta's  close 
friend.  Another  possible  approach  to  Augusta  lay 
in  the  fact  that  Ovid's  wife  knew  intimately  the 
Emperor's  maternal  aunt,  Atia  Minor.  This  seems 
to  have  been  the  only  real  link  between  the  poet's 
household  and  the  palace. 

At  the  time  when  Ovid  was  ordered  into  exile 
(A.D.  8)  the  only  members  of  his  immediate  family 
who  were  in  Rome  were  his  wife  and  step-daughter. 
His  own  daughter,  who  must  have  been  the  daughter 
of  his  first  or  second  wife,  had  married  a  second 
time  and  was  absent  in  Libya,  but  we  know  neither 
her  name  nor  that  of  her  husband  at  the  time.  His 
only  brother  had  died  years  before  when  he  had 
just  turned  twenty,  i.e.  in  24  B.C.  Both  of  the  poet's 
parents  also  had  passed  away,  his  father  at  the 
advanced  age  of  ninety. 

Ovid  himself  was  married  three  times.  He  speaks 
of  his  first  wife  whom  he  married  when  he  was 
"  almost  a  boy,"  as  *'  unworthy  and  useless."  The 
marriage  lasted  but  a  short  time  and  may  have 
ended  in  divorce.  The  second  wife  was  "  blame- 
less," but  this  marriage  also  was  broken  off  by 
death  or  divorce.  The  poet  does  not  tell  us  the 
xvi 


INTRODUCTION 

names  of  these  ladies,  but  he  indicates  that  one  of 
them  came  from  Falerii  (Am.  in.  13.  1).  Ovid's  third 
wife  was  "  from  the  house  "  of  the  Fabii  (P.  i.  2. 
136),  but  it  is  not  certain  that  her  name,  which 
Ovid  does  not  give,  was  Fabia.  She  may  have 
been  a  poor  relative  (or  a  relative  who  had  lost  her 
parents)  who  had  lived  in  the  protection  of  the 
Fabian  household.  She  was  a  widow  (or  divorced  ?) 
with  one  daughter,  Perilla,  when  Ovid  married  her, 
but  the  marriage  seems  to  have  been  childless.1 
Upon  her  devolved  the  care  of  the  poet's  property 
after  he  was  exiled,  and  upon  her  efforts  he  rested 
in  large  measure  his  hopes  of  pardon.  Many 
passages  bear  witness  to  his  tender  love  for  her  ; 
lie  draws  a  most  affecting  picture  of  their  mutual 
despair  at  parting,  and  if  at  times  after  years  of 
exile  he  became  somewhat  peevish,  we  must  pity 
rather  than  condemn.  The  poor  lady  seems  to  have 
been  always  faithful  to  his  interests  and  no  doubt 
she  did  all  within  her  power  to  secure  a  mitigation 
of  his  sentence. 

But  neither  family  connexions  nor  influential  friends 
were  able  to  save  Ovid  from  his  fate.  After  more 
than  thirty  years  of  popularity,  at  the  age  of  fifty, 
he  was  suddenly  ordered  to  leave  that  Rome  which 
was  the  very  breath  of  life  to  men  of  his  stamp 
and  take  up  his  abode  on  the  very  edge  of  the 
wilderness  in  a  little  town  of  which  he  had  probably 
never  heard.  The  order  emanated  from  the  authority 
of  the  Emperor  and  was  never  brought  before  the 
Senate  or  a  court.  Ovid  was  not  called  an  exul> 

1  Perilla  later  married  Suillius  (P.  iv.  8.  11  and  90). 
Some  scholars  believe  that  Perilla  is  a  pseudonym  and  that 
she  was  not  connected  with  Ovid. 

xvii 


INTRODUCTION 

but  was  "  relegated "  (rekgatus).1  Relegatio  was 
milder  than  the  exilium  of  the  late  republic  in  that 
the  poet's  property  was  not  confiscated  and  his  civic 
rights  were  not  taken  from  him,  but  it  was  harsher, 
in  Ovid's  case,  in  that  he  was  ordered  to  stay  in 
one  designated  locality.  The  exul  of  the  republican 
period  might  wander  where  he  would  provided  he 
kept  beyond  a  prescribed  radius  from  Rome.  On  the 
other  hand,  to  judge  from  Cicero's  case,  the  friends 
of  an  exile  of  that  period  subjected  themselves  to 
penalties  if  they  aided  him,  whereas  Ovid's  friends 
freely  assisted  him  and  wrote  to  him.  Even  the 
fear  of  being  publicly  known  as  his  friends,  which 
prevailed  at  the  time  he  was  writing  the  Tristia,  had 
vanished  from  the  minds  of  all  but  one  or  two  when 
the  Pontic  Epistles  were  written,  and  Ovid  himself 
states  openly  (P.  iii.  6.  11  f.)  that  the  Emperor 
forbade  neither  mention  of  him  nor  correspondence 
with  him. 

The  sins  which  led  Augustus  to  banish  Ovid  have 
been  endlessly  discussed.  The  poet  himself  refers 
to  them  again  and  again,  but  his  references  are  so 
vague  that  it  is  impossible  to  arrive  at  the  whole 
truth,  and  of  course  the  lips  of  his  contemporaries 
were  sealed.  He  was  constantly  hoping  that  his 
penalty  might  be  revoked  or  at  least  mitigated  by 
permission  to  change  his  place  of  exile,  and  he  left 
no  stone  unturned  to  effect  one  or  the  other  of  these 
results.  If  we  had  his  prose  correspondence  with 
friends  in  Rome  and  elsewhere — a  correspondence 
to  which  he  frequently  refers — it  would  be  easier 
to  solve  the  problem,  but  in  the  poems  from  exile 
we  have  only  such  evidence  as  could  be  made  public 

1  T.  ii.  131  ff. ;  iv.  4.  45  f. :  9.  1 1  ff. ;  5.  7  ;  P.  ii.  7.  56. 
xviii 


INTRODUCTION 

without  injuring  the  exile's  chances  of  pardon  or 
involving  his  friends.  In  weighing  this  evidence  it 
is  necessary  to  allow  for  a  double  distortion — an  over- 
emphasis on  the  charges  which  could  be  publicly 
argued  and  a  corresponding  reticence  about  those 
which  it  seemed  impolitic  to  discuss  in  public. 
Moreover,  the  poet  based  his  hope  of  pardon  very 
largely  on  confession  of  guilt ;  he  threw  himself  on 
the  mercy  of  the  court  which  consisted,  in  this  case, 
of  a  single  judge,  the  Emperor.  Naturally,  there- 
fore, he  did  not  argue  his  case  as  completely  as  he 
could  have  done  if  he  had  been  free  to  use' all  the 
arguments  at  his  disposal.  He  was  aware  that  the 
mere  presentation  of  evidence  could  avail  him 
nothing.  There  was  no  appeal  from  the  judge's 
verdict,  but  the  judge  himself  might  be  induced 
to  relent. 

Ovid  asserts  that  there  were  two  charges  against 
him,  a  poem  and  a  mistake  (T.  ii.  207,  "  duo  crimina, 
carmen  et  error")  of  which  the  poem  was  the  first 
in  time.  In  many  passages  he  makes  the  same 
distinction  between  his  sins,  and  it  will  be  advisable, 
even  though  they  may  have  been  connected,  to 
discuss  them  separately  in  order  to  determine  the 
poet's  own  attitude. 

The  poem  was  the  Ars  Amatoria  which  was  pub- 
lished c.  1  B.C.  This  Art,  as  the  poet  often  calls 
it,  is  no  more  immoral  than  other  erotic  works, 
among  which  Ovid  mentions  those  of  Tibullus 
and  Propertius,  but  it  is  explicitly  didactic.  It 
gathers  up  and  systematizes  the-  erotic  precepts 
which  had  gradually  been  developed  (largely  under 
Greek  influence)  by  the  Roman  poets,  especially 
Gallus,  Tibullus,  Propertius,  and  Ovid  himself.  It 


INTRODUCTION 

taught  love  explicitly,  and  Ovid  became  known  as 
the  chief  erotic  expert  (pr acceptor  amoris).  Erotic 
teaching  had  appeared  often  enough  in  Greek  and 
Latin,  but  there  had  been  no  handbook  like  this. 
The  Art  was  the  culmination,  the  shining  example, 
for  it  presented  the  subject  as  a  didactic  system, 
and  it  was  this  aspect  of  the  book,  not  the  erotic 
content  per  se,  that  angered  Augustus.  In  his  eyes 
and  in  the  eyes  of  all  those  who  hoped  to  regenerate 
Roman  morals  Ovid  was  the  arch  offender,  and  the 
Art  was  his  chief  sin.  When  the  poet  was  exiled 
the  Art  was  expelled  from  the  public  libraries  and 
placed  under  a  ban. 

The  charge  of  pernicious  influence  through  the 
medium  of  the  Art  could  be  publicly  discussed,  and 
since  Ovid  presents  his  case  in  the  second  book  of 
the  Tristia,  not  to  mention  many  other  briefer 
passages,  the  discussion  need  not  be  repeated  here. 
It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  he  denied  any  intention 
of  immoral  influence,  proving  that  the  Art  was 
explicitly  restricted  to  affairs  with  courtesans,  and 
that  he  was  no  more  blameworthy  than  countless 
other  writers  if  readers  had  made  a  perverse  use 
of  his  work.  He  complained  truly  that  he  was  the 
only  erotic  poet  who  had  ever  been  punished  for  his 
compositions.  In  view  of  ancient  standards  in  such 
matters  it  must  be  admitted  that,  so  far  as  the  Art 
was  concerned,  he  was  harshly  treated.  But  what- 
ever the  merits  of  the  case  the  poet  bitterly  regretted 
that  he  had  ever  written  erotic  verse,  even  at  times 
that  he  had  ever  attempted  verse  of  any  kind. 
Augustus  had  condemned  the  Art,  and  Ovid  had 
perforce  to  admit  that  he  had  sinned. 

In  Ovid's  eyes  then  the  Art  was  the  earliest  cause 


INTRODUCTION 

of  his  exile  and  an  important  cause,  but  he  says  that 
there  was  a  later  cause  which  "  had  injured  him 
more  "  (P.  iii.  3.  72).  Since  the  latter  could  not 
be  discussed  publicly,  the  poet  speaks  of  it  in  very 
general  terms.  It  was  not  a  crime  (scelus),  not 
illegal,  but  rather  a  fault  (culpa,  vitium)  which  he 
admitted  to  be  wrong  (peccalum,  delictum,  noxa). 
He  had  not  been  guilty  wittingly,  but  through 
chance  (fortuna,  casus).  There  had  been  no  criminal 
action  (facinus)  on  his  part,  but  he  had  laboured 
under  a  misunderstanding,  he  had  blundered  (error). 
He  had  been  stupid  (stultus),  thoughtless  (imprudens, 
non  sapiens),  over  ingenuous  (simplicitas)  ;  he  had 
been  ashamed  (pudor)  and  afraid  (timar,  timidus)? 

From  the  passages  in  which  he  speaks  most  fully 
of  this  fault  we  infer  that  the  affair  with  which  it 
was  connected  had  a  considerable  history,  or  at 
least  that  a  full  account  of  it  would  have  been  a 
long  one.  It  began  with  a  misunderstanding  on 
Ovid's  part  of  something  that  he  had  seen  by  chance 
(T.  iii.  6.  27  if.  ;  ii.  103  ff.),  but  he  must  soon  have 
comprehended  its  import,  for  he  began  to  be  afraid. 
He  harboured  it  as  a  secret  when  advice  might  have 
saved  him. 

He  speaks  of  that  which  his  eyes  had  seen  as 
something  wrong,  but  not  as  a  crime.  He  had  not 
at  first  considered  it  to  be  wrong,  and  perhaps  his 
later  confession  that  it  was  wrong  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  he  was  punished  for  it  ;  at  least  confession  of 

1  For  these  terms  cf.  T.  i.  2.  100;  iv.  4.  37  and  43  if . ; 
P.  ii.  9.  71  ;  T.  i.  2.  64;  iv.  8.  49 ;  4.  44 ;  P.  i.  7.  41  ;  ii.  9. 
72;  T.  ii.  105  f. ;  i.  2.  98  ff. ;  ii.  104;  P.  ii.  2.  17;  T.  i.  5. 
42 ;  iii.  6.  30  ;  P.  ii.  2.  17  ;  T.  iii.  6.  27  ;  P.  i.  6.  21  ;  T.  iv. 
4.38;  iii.  6.  11  ff.;  P.  ii.  C.  7. 

xxi 


INTRODUCTION 

guilt  was  in  this  matter,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Ars 
Amatoria,  a  necessary  part  of  his  appeal  to  Augustus.1 
It  was  necessary  also  for  him  to  represent  his  friends, 
however  sympathetic  they  were,  as  siding  with 
Augustus,  and  so  we  hear  that  Cotta  Maximus, 
Messalinus,  and  Graecinus  condemned  or  reproved 
the  poet's  sins  ;  they  believed  that  Ovid  had  sinned 
but  that  his  sin  was  rather  foolish  than  criminal. 
The  thing  was  an  offence,  a  wound  to  Augustus, 
and  he  had  used  harsh  words  about  it,  but  there  is 
no  proof  that  the  wound  concerned  his  private 
affairs.  In  fact  the  sin  did  not,  according  to  Ovid, 
involve  others  but  had  ruined  the  poet  alone.  He 
advances  his  original  error  as  a  partial  excuse,  not 
as  a  defence,  for  his  sin.  This  is  his  only  plea,  but  it 
is  fairly  clear  that  if  the  question  could  have  been 
argued  he  would  have  made  a  strong  defence. 

What  had  Ovid  seen  ?  Why,  after  he  realized  its 
import,  had  he  been  afraid  to  reveal  his  knowledge  ? 
To  the  second  question  one  may  answer  that  he 
was  afraid  of  that  which  actually  befell  him,  the 
Emperor's  anger,  for  he  must  have  been  aware 
that  he  was  disliked  by  Augustus.  But  to  the  first 
question  there  is  with  our  present  evidence  no 
satisfactory  answer  although  it  has  afforded  a 
tempting  field  for  surmise.  Nevertheless  such 
evidence  as  we  have  makes  it  possible  to  define 
approximately  the  nature  of  the  thing,  to  say  at 
least  in  some  degree  what  it  was  not,  and  so  to 
eliminate  certain  favourite  hypotheses. 

Ovid  characterizes  the  affair  as  no  crime,  and  we 
may  accept  this  statement  because  he  would  not 
have  ventured  to  misname  it  nor  could  he  have 

1  T.  ii.  134,209,  133. 
xxii 


INTRODUCTION 

misunderstood  it  if  it  had  been  criminal.  Ovid 
himself  could  not  discuss  it  because  the  case  had  been 
closed  by  the  Emperor's  verdict,  but  his  statement 
is  supported  by  the  fact  that  he  alludes  to  it  many 
times  without  rebuke,  that  everybody  knew  it,  and 
that  the  Emperor  made  no  attempt  to  hush  it  up. 
It  seems,  therefore,  very  improbable  that  the  evil 
of  which  he  became  cognizant  was  anything  so 
heinous  as  the  profligacy  of  the  younger  Julia,  who 
was  banished  at  about  the  same  time  as  the  poet. 
Ovid  refers,  it  is  true,  to  his  fault  as  an  offence 
against  Augustus,  as  a  wound,"  an  "  injury  "  to 
him,  but  such  phrases  need  not  imply  that  the 
offence  concerned  the  imperial  household.  Any 
offence  against  the  state,  or  that  which  Augustus 
regarded  as  the  interest  of  the  state,  was  an  injury 
to  the  ruler. 

Augustus's  own  attitude,  as  shown  by  Ovid,  in- 
dicates that  the  poet's  sin  was  not  a  very  heavy  one. 
To  say  nothing  of  the  comparatively  mild  conditions 
of  Ovid's  relegatio,  which  he  himself  urges  as 
a  proof  of  the  Emperor's  estimate,  the  poet  and 
his  friends  were  allowed  to  correspond  freely,  and 
he  was  allowed  to  publish  poetry  appealing  openly 
to  Augustus  and  to  many  others.  It  is  plain  that 
Augustus  and  after  his  death  Tiberius,  who  con- 
tinued so  religiously  the  policies  of  his  predecessor, 
were  quite  satisfied  merely  to  have  Ovid  out  of  the 
way.  Ovid's  fault  was  serious  enough  to  serve  as 
a  pretext,  that  is  all.  It  was  the  exciting  cause  of 
his  exile,  and  so  he  can  speak  of  it  as  having  "  injured 
him  more  "  than  the  Ars  Amatoria,  but  the  latter — 
all  his  erotic  verse  in  fact — which  had  given  him  so 
great  and  unsavoury  a  reputation  as  the  purveyor 

xxiii 


INTRODUCTION 

of  wanton  titbits,  was  the  predisposing  cause.  His 
fault  must  have  been  something  that  enhanced  the 
poet's  pernicious  influence  by  lowering  his  personal 
reputation.  With  the  Emperor  it  was  the  final 
straw.  Without  it  Ovid  might  never  have  been  exiled, 
for  he  was  turning  to  more  dignified  work,  the 
Metamorphoses,  the  Fasti,  but  he  could  not  escape 
the  notoriety  of  that  earlier  work  which  was  still  so 
popular  with  his  "  host  of  readers. 

Augustus  himself  was  no  prude.  He  had  a  weak- 
ness for  mimes  and  he  liked  his  little  joke.  It  was 
not  the  content  of  the  Ars  Amatoria  but  rather  its 
pernicious  influence  that  angered  him.  If  that 
work  had  merely  been  the  talk  of  a  day  it  would 
be  impossible  to  understand  why  the  Emperor 
allowed  eight  or  nine  years  to  pass  before  punishing 
its  author.  Everything  indicates,  however,  that 
time  only  increased  the  vogue  of  the  book,  and  when 
at  an  age  that  should  have  brought  him  wisdom 
the  poet  made  that  final  stupid  blunder,  the  Emperor 
became  convinced  that  the  question  involved  more 
than  mere  literature  ;  it  had  passed  into  the  sphere 
of  public  policy.  In  brief,  from  the  point  of  view 
of  Augustus,  the  ruler  and  reformer,  Ovid  had  been 
a  nuisance  for  many  years  and  had  given  fresh  proof 
of  his  incorrigibility  by  making  a  fool  of  himself. 
The  thing  was  too  much.  "  I  am  sick  of  this  fellow," 
he  decided.  "  Naviget !  "*• 

1  Schanz  (see  Bibliog.)  gives  a  good  resum£  of  modern 
discussions.  Boissier  connects  Ovid's  culpa  with  the  intrigue 
of  the  younger  Ju^ia  and  Silanus,  and  this  has  been  the 
favourite  hypothesis.  More  recently  S.  Reinach  (Rev.  de 
Philol.  xxxiv.,  1910,  p.  347)  and  Nemethy  (see  Bibliog.)  have 
tried  to  show  that  Ovid  was  implicated  in  the  affair  of 
Agrippa  Postumus,  Augustus's  grandson,  who  was  banished 
xxiv 


INTRODUCTION 

When  the  blow  fell  Ovid  was  in  Elba,  probably 
in  the  suite  of  his  friend  Cotta  Maximus,  for  the 
latter  heard  of  Ovid's  sin,  and  Ovid  has  described 
the  interview  in  which  he  stammeringly  confessed  to 
Cotta  that  the  report  was  true.  This  must  have 
been  in  the  summer  or  early  autumn  of  A.D.  8.  Ovid 
returned  to  Rome  and  arranged  his  affairs  as  best 
he  could.  In  his  despair  he  contemplated  suicide, 
but  he  was  not  of  the  stuff  of  which  suicides  are 
made.  Moreover,  he  cherished  hopes  of  pardon, 
and  he  prevailed  on  his  wife  to  remain  behind  to 
work  for  this  object.  His  parting  from  her  and 
the  events  of  his  dismal  journey  are  described  in 
Tristia  i.,  all  of  which,  save  possibly  the  proem,  was 
written  before  he  reached  Tomis.  The  account  of 
the  journey  does  not  begin  until  he  has  boarded 
ship,  at  which  time  we  find  him  storm-tossed  on  the 
Adriatic,  and  so  it  is  uncertain  whether  he  followed 
the  Appian  Way  to  Capua  and  its  extension  to 
Brundisium,  the  customary  route  for  travellers 
bound  to  the  East,  or  whether  he  embarked  at 
some  port  nearer  Rome,  for  example,  Ostia.  At 
any  rate  he  sailed  to  Corinth,  crossed  the  Isthmus 
from  Lechacum  to  Cenchreae  and  boarded  a  second 
ship  which  carried  him  to  Imbros  and  Samothrace. 
This  ship  completed  her  voyage  to  Tomis,  but  the 
poet  preferred  to  cross  from  Samothrace  to  Tempyra 
near  the  Thracian  coast  and  so  to  finish  his  journey 

not  long  before  Ovid.  The  translator,  after  a  fresh  study  of 
all  the  evidence,  agrees  with  Boissier  (and  Ehwald)  that  the 
chief  cause  of  exile  was  the  Ars  amat.  and  that  the  culpa 
merely  gave  Augustus  a  pretext,  but  he  differs  from  Boissier 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  culpa.  The  evidence  shows  that  the 
culpa  could  not  have  been  in  itself  anything  very  serious. 

XXV 


INTRODUCTION 

by  land.  He  must  have  journeyed  slowly,  for  he 
received  news  from  home  on  the  way,  and  it  is 
probable  that  he  did  not  cross  the  Thracian  mountains 
to  Tomis  until  the  spring  or  summer  of  A.D.  9,  since 
he  alludes  to  no  discomfort  from  cold,  although  after 
his  arrival  in  Tomis  this  is  a  hardship  on  which  he 
dwells  insistently. 

Tomis  !  Outlandish  name !  With  what  bitter- 
ness the  storm-tossed  poet  speaks  of  "  the  Tomitans, 
situate  in  some  corner  of  the  world  "  !  We  cannot 
expect  from  a  poet,  much  less  from  an  exiled 
poet,  an  adequate  description  of  the  town.  It  was 
his  interest  to  paint  a  gloomy  picture.  And  yet  if 
we  allow  for  his  exaggeration  of  the  hardships 
there  are  details  enough  with  which  to  form  a 
fairly  good  conception  of  the  poet's  hostelry  of 
calamity. 

Tomis l  (the  modern  Constantza)  lay  on  an  elevated 
and  rocky  part  of  the  coast,  about  sixty-five  miles 
south-west  of  the  nearest  mouth  of  the  Danube,  in 
that  part  of  Roumania  now  called  the  Dobrudja. 
The  townspeople  were  a  mixed  crowd  of  half-breed 
Greeks  and  full-blooded  barbarians.  The  latter 
were  in  the  majority  and  were  chiefly  of  Getic, 
hence  Indo-European,  stock.  They  dressed  in  skins, 
wore  their  hair  and  beards  long,  and  went  about 
armed.  They  were  fine  horsemen  and  experts  with 
the  bow.  Apart  from  trade  the  chief  occupation 
of  the  region  was  grazing,  for  border  warfare  made 
agriculture  difficult.  It  was  a  rude  community. 
Latin  was  almost  never  heard  and  the  people  spoke 
some  hybrid  Greek,  but  Getic  and  Sarmatian  were 

1  Tomis,  not  Tomi,  is  indicated  by  the  manuscripts  and  is 
the  older  form  of  the  name,  cf.  Pick  {see  Bibliog.). 

xxvi 


INTRODUCTION 

so  much  in  use  that  Ovid  was  forced  to  learn  these 
languages.     He  even  wrote  a  poem  in  Getic. 

The  coastal  region  is  often  called  by  Ovid 
"  Pontus "  after  the  Pontus  Euxinus,  the  modern 
Black  Sea,  which  washed  its  shores.  Sometimes 
he  speaks  of  it  as  Pontus  Laevus  or  Sinister, 
"  Pontus  -on  -the  -Left "  (as  one  enters  the  Black 
Sea),  to  distinguish  it  from  the  kingdom  of  Pontus 
in  Asia  Minor,  but  at  times  these  epithets  seem 
to  mean  "  ill-omened."  Tomis  itself  was  an  ancient 
colony  of  Miletus  and  was  in  ancient  as  in  modern 
times  an  important  port.  Because  of  the  silt 
in  the  outlets  of  the  Danube  much  freight  passed 
to  and  from  the  river,  in  ancient  times,  by 
way  of  Tomis.  The  country  about  the  town  is 
in  general  flat  arid  treeless,  often  marshy.  Ovid 
often  speaks  of  this  and  also  of  the  bad  water 
^hich,  together  with  the  rough  fare,  may  have  caused 
the  frequent  illnesses  which  he  mentions.  He 
suffered  from  indigestion,  fever,  insomnia,  "  an 
aching  side."  He  dwells  on  the  extreme  cold. 
Snow  lies  all  winter,  the  Danube  and  the  sea  are 
frozen  hard,  even  wine  freezes  in  the  jar  arid  is 
served  in  pieces  !  The  hair  of  the  barbarians 
"  tinkles  with  ice."  This  picture,  as  modern  evidence 
proves,  is  not  overdrawn.  Although  the  latitude 
of  Tomis  is  about  the  same  as  that  of  Florence,  the 
winters  are  very  severe.  The  temperature  in  the  flat 
country  sinks  at  times  to  20°  or  even  30°  below  zero 
(Fahrenheit),  and  the  Danube  is  sometimes  ice- 
bound for  three  months.  Violent  winds,  as  Ovid 
also  observed,  are  prevalent. 

Since  Tomis  was  a  border  town  it  was  subject  to 
raids  by  the  wild  tribes  from  across  the  Danube, 


INTRODUCTION 

and  this  constant  peril  was  in  Ovid's  eyes  one  of 
his  worst  misfortunes.  The  shepherds  wore  helmets 
as  they  tended  their  flocks.  When  the  barbarians 
swooped  down  they  destroyed  or  carried  away 
everything  that  could  not  be  brought  within  the 
walls.  Poisoned  arrows  fell  thickly  within  the  town 
and  even  the  elderly  poet  was  called  upon  to  aid 
in  the  defence.  We  are  reminded  of  the  tales  of 
colonial  America  and  the  warfare  of  the  settlers 
against  the  savages. 

Such  is  the  picture  that  Ovid  paints.  No  wonder 
that  he  regarded  Tomis  as  "  the  worst  element  in 
his  cruel  lot,"  for  it  would  be  difficult  to  conceive 
of  a  place  more  distasteful  to  a  man  of  his  type. 
And  yet  even  in  his  account  there  are  some  bright 
spots.  The  people  were  rough  but  they  were  kind  to 
him.  They  realized  how  hard  it  was  for  such  a  man 
to  live  a  virtual  prisoner  among  them.  They 
honoured  him  by  a  decree  exempting  him  from 
taxation  and  they  listened  sympathetically  when  he 
told  them  of  his  appeals  to  be  restored  to  his  native 
land.  For  all  this  the  poet  was  grateful,  and  when 
his  wild  hosts  became  aware  of  his  attacks  upon 
their  land  and  showed  their  indignation,  he  was 
almost  in  despair.  They  could  hardly  be  expected 
to  accept  the  distinction  that  he  made  between 
his  gratitude  to  them  and  his  detestation  of  their 
country. 

There  was  nothing  of  Roman  sternness  about 
Ovid.  Physically  he  was  not  strong  and,  even  if 
the  portrait  which  he  draws  of  himself  in  exile — 
his  emaciation,  his  pallor  and  whitening  hair,  his 
frequent  illnesses — is  exaggerated,  it  is  clear  that 
he  was  not  one  who  cared  for  the  strenuous  life. 


INTRODUCTION 

His  tastes  were  all  against  it.  He  did  not  care  for 
exercises  in  arms,  though  he  professes  that  he  had 
to  don  a  helmet  to  aid  in  the  defence  of  Tomis. 
Archery,  the  favourite  sport  of  the  barbarians,  had 
no  attractions  for  him.  In  fact  the  only  form  of 
outdoor  occupation  that  he  cared  for  was  gardening. 
This  he  had  practised  in  Italy  and  he  would  have 
liked  to  continue  it  at  Tomis  if  such  a  thing  had 
been  possible.  He  liked  the  ordinary  inactive  amuse- 
ments, dice-playing,  etc.,  as  little  as  he  did  physical 
exercises.  "Games,"  he  said,  "are  wont  to  waste 
that  precious  thing,  our  time  !  " 

He  was  abstemious.  Eating  and  drinking  as  mere 
pleasures  did  not  appeal  to  him  ;  "  You  know,"  he 
writes  to  Flaccus,  "  that  water  is  almost  rny  only 
drink."  In  his  younger  days  his  heart  had  not 
been  impregnable  to  Cupid's  darts,  although  he 
asserts  that  no  scandal  had  ever  been  attached  to 
his  name,  but  advancing  years  and  the  sorrows  of 
exile  had  removed  this  susceptibility. 

There  was  little  of  the  philosopher  or  the  scientist 
in  Ovid  and  nothing  at  all  of  the  explorer.  What 
a  chance  he  had  during  his  long  residence  at  Tomis 
to  study  the  geography  and  ethnology  of  that  almost 
unknown  region  !  What  a  chance  for  excursions 
into  the  wild  country  and  among  tribes  still  wilder  ! 
Probably  such  excursions  would  not  have  been 
contrary  to  the  decree  of  relegatio.  But  he  was 
not  a  Varro  or  a  Pliny,  and  his  only  attempt  at 
science  (aside  from  his  effort  to  explain  the  freezing 
of  the  Pontus)  seems  to  have  been  his  Halieutica,  a 
disquisition,  of  which  only  a  fragment  remains,  on 
the  fishes  and  animals  of  the  Pontus.  Nowhere  in 
all  his  verses  is  there  an  adequate  description  of  the 
c  xxix 


INTRODUCTION 

many  interesting  barbarian  tribes  with  which  he 
became  so  familiar.  Such  details  as  he  gives  are 
almost  always  part  of  his  effort  to  paint  his  lot  in 
the  darkest  colours. 

But  we  cannot  reproach  him  for  the  lack  of  qualities 
which  he  did  not  possess.  His  interests  were  in  that 
humanity  whose  life  centred  in  the  great  metropolis. 
His  feeling  was  that  of  Catullus,  "  that  is  my^settled 
abode,  there  do  I  pluck  the  blooms  of  life,"  or  of 
Cicero,  "  I  am  gripped  by  a  marvellous  love  of  the 
city/'  But  unlike  his  two  great  predecessors  he 
was  forced  to  doubt  whether  he  was  ever  to  behold 
that  loved  city  again.  No  wonder  that  the  longing 
to  return  became  with  him  an  obsession,  no  wonder 
that  to  a  man  of  his  tastes  Tomis  was  the  hardest 
element  in  his  fate. 

A  few  congenial  companions  would  have  greatly 
lightened  the  tedium  of  his  exile.  He  had  been 
a  brilliant  declaimer  and  undoubtedly  an  equally 
brilliant  conversationalist.  If  there  had  only  been 
some  friend  with  whom  he  could  have  whiled  away 
the  lagging  hours  in  those  endless  talks  which  he 
recalls  so  pleasantly !  But  he  was  forced  to  talk 
with  his  friends  by  letter  and  in  imagination.  Cut 
off  thus  from  his  friends  and  from  everything  that 
he  held  dear,  unable  to  find  or  to  create  for  himself 
any  real  interest  in  his  surroundings,  he  found  his 
chief  solace  in  writing.  Poetry  had  ruined  him, 
but  he  could  not  lightly  abandon  his  very  nature 
and  the  practice  of  a  lifetime.  He  was  a  born  poet 
and  he  felt  an  irresistible  impulse  to  write.  Poetic 
composition  not  only  comforted  him  and  hastened 
the  dragging  hours,  but  although  it  had  injured 
him  he  had  hoped  that,  perhaps,  like  Telephus  of 


XXX 


INTRODUCTION 

old,  he  would  be  healed  by  the  very  weapon  that 
had  wrought  him  harm  ;  he  sought  no  fame,  but 
poetry  was  the  best  means  in  his  power  of  making 
a  personal  effort  in  his  own  behalf.  Therefore  he 
wrote,  and  the  verse  of  this  period,  apart  from  its 
references  to  others,  throws  interesting  lights  upon 
his  own  work  and  his  own  methods. 

Ovid  was  a  very  careful  artist,  severe  in  self- 
criticism,  although  he  was  a  generous  critic  of 
others.  Occasionally  he  speaks  of  hurried  com- 
position, but  his  habit  was  quite  the  opposite.  He 
toiled  over  his  work,  and  his  verse  smells  of  the  lamp. 
Before  his  exile  he  had  followed  the  practice,  common 
at  the  time,  of  reading  his  poetry  to  discerning 
friends  in  order  to  profit  by  their  advice,  and  to 
revise  it  carefully  before  publication.  In  Tomis  he 
complains  that  there  was  nobody  to  whom  he  could 
read  it  ;  he  had  to  be  his  own  critic,  and  he  shrank 
from  the  task  of  revision.  Moreover,  all  the  condi- 
tions favourable  for  good  work  were  lacking — an 
untroubled  mind,  peaceful  surroundings,  abundant 
books,  the  stimulus  of  an  audience  (P.  iv.  2.  29  ff.). 
He  has  so  little  opportunity  to  speak  Latin  that  he 
fears  lest  barbarisms  creep  into  his  work.  His 
talent  is  broken  and  the  stream  of  his  inspiration  is 
dried  up.  He  recognizes  the  faults  of  his  work 
and  admits  that  it  is  poor  stuff,  not  better  than 
his  lot.  Again  and  again  he  asks  indulgence  for  it. 

Poetry  written  by  such  a  man  amid  such  surround- 
ings was  inevitably  monotonous  and  aroused  criticism. 
The  almost  unvarying  sadness  of  its  tone,  the  con- 
stant repetition  of  the  same  appeal  were  criticized. 
He  admits  the  charge  ;  his  poetry  is  conditioned  by 
his  lot  and  by  his  purpose,  and  he  regards  possible 

xx  xi 


INTRODUCTION 

advantage  to  himself  as  preferable  to  fame  ;  if  he 
could  be  restored  to  his  home  he  would  be  gay  as 
of  old,  though  he  would  never  again  attempt  wanton 
verse  .l 

And  yet,  although  his  work  of  necessity  fell  short  of 
his  ideals,  he  was  conscious  that  it  was  good  enough 
to  be  read,  for  the  host  of  readers  of  which  he  boasts 
must  have  included  many  who  were  not  interested 
solely  in  the  work  of  his  happier  years.  His  great 
reputation  also  must  have  interested  many  in  the 
poetry  of  a  fallen  idol,  even  if  from  mere  curiosity 
to  discover  how  that  idol  comported  himself  in 
exile.  He  affirms,  moreover,  that  to  be  named  in 
his  verse  was  to  receive  fame.  This  affirmation  was 
not  mere  convention,  nor  was  it  entirely  for  the 
purpose  of  propaganda  that  he  published  these 
poems.  He  believed  that  they  were  worth  pub- 
lishing. And  he  was  right.  They  are  too  pervasively 
gloomy,  although  the  reader  will  find  not  a  few 
exceptions  to  the  rule,  and  their  purpose  is  too 
obviously  pressed.  Nevertheless  as  human  docu- 
ments they  possess  great  interest  in  spite  of  the 
author's  weakness  and  slavish  fawning. 

Their  chief  interest,  however,  lies  in  their  art. 
Ovid  possessed  remarkable  powers  over  language  : 
he  was  a  great  phrase-maker.  He  was  also  one  of 
the  greatest  of  metricians.  These  are  high  qualities, 
and  in  the  poems  from  exile  they  are  scarcely 
impaired  at  all,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  here  as 
elsewjiere  in  Ovid  they  often  degenerate  into  mere 
juggling  with  words.  But  when  the  poet  is  at  his 
best  there  is  the  old  skill  in  the  use  of  a  remarkably 
simple  vocabulary,  the  old  simplicity  of  structure,  the 

1  T.  v.  1. 
xxxii 


INTRODUCTION 

same  limpid  clearness  and  skilful  arrangement,  the 
same  sweetness  and  melody  in  the  verse.  No 
translation  can  hope  to  render  all  this.  It  cannot  be 
separated  from  the  Latin.  But  the  translator  can 
at  least  use  simple  English  ;  he  can  try  to  be  clear 
and  to  hint  at  the  beauties  of  the  order.  He  can 
do  little  else.  Ovid  destroyed  much  that  he  wrote, 
he  tells  us,  and  the  Tristia  and  Epistulae  ex  Ponto 
are  the  cream  of  his  years  of  exile.  Considering 
the  fact  that  they  represent  eight  or  nine  years  of 
work  their  bulk  is  not  great.  Because  of  the 
monotony  of  their  content  and  tone  and  the  almost 
constant  obtrusion  of  mere  rhetorical  trickery  they 
will  never  be  popular,  and  yet  they  contain  much 
that  is  admirable.  To  those  who  can  be  patient 
with  Ovid,  who  like  good  writing  for  its  own  sake, 
the  poems  from  exile  will  always  make  a  strong 
appeal. 

CHRONOLOGY  AND  PUBLICATION 

In  P.  iv.  6.  16  there  is  a  reference  to  the  death 
of  Augustus  together  with  the  statement  (v.  5)  that 
Ovid  has  passed  an  Olympiad  of  five  years  in  Scythia. 
Augustus  died  August  19,  A.D.  14.  Therefore  P. 
iv.  6  was  written  in  the  autumn  of  A.D.  14,  and  the 
poet  had  been  in  Tomis  since  A.D.  9  (probably  summer 
at  latest).  The  poems  of  T.  i.  were  all  written 
during  his  journey  into  exile  (T.  i.  1 1. 1  ff.),  and  since 
he  refers  in  this  book  to  December  and  winter 
(T.  i.  11.  3  ff.,  39,  etc.),  but  mentions  no  discomforts 
of  a  winter  journey  through  the  Thracian  mountains, 
and  since  he  travelled  so  leisurely  that  he  received 
news  from  home  (T.  i.  6.  8  ff.,  i.  9.  39  f.),  it  is  very 
probable  that  he  left  Rome  in  the  autumn  or  early 


INTRODUCTION 

winter  of  A.D.  8.  Moreover,  T.  iv.  10.  95  f.  implies 
that  he  was  fifty  when  he  was  ordered  into  exile  (cf. 
Ibis  1).  If  he  is  speaking  at  all  precisely,  we  may 
infer  that  the  order  came  after  March  20,  A.D.  8,  his 
fiftieth  birthday.  On  this  basis  we  may  establish 
the  following  table  : 

T.  i.     Composed  during  the  winter,  A.D.  8-9. 

T.  ii.  Composed  A.D.  9-  Tiberius  is  still  warring 
in  Pannonia,  and  Ovid  has  not  heard  of  the 
close  of  the  war  and  of  Tiberius 's  transfer  to 
Germany  after  the  defeat  of  Varus  (cf.  vv. 
177,  225  ff.). 

T.  iii.  Composed  A.D.  9-10.  Germany  has  rebelled 
(cf.  iii.  12.  47  ff.).  The  defeat  of  Varus 
occurred  in  the  late  summer  or  autumn 
A.D.  9- 

T.  iv.  Composed  A.D.  10-11.  Tiberius  is  cam- 
paigning against  the  Germans  (A.D.  10,  cf. 
iv.  2.  2).  Ovid  has  passed  two  summers  away 
from  home  (i.e.  autumn  of  A.D.  10,  cf.  iv.  6.  19), 
and  two  winters  (i.e.  the  spring  of  either  A.D. 
10  or  11  is  meant,  according  as  we  interpret 
the  passage  to  refer  to  two  winters  since  the 
poet  left  Rome,  or  two  passed  in  Tomis,  cf. 
iv.  7.  1  f.). 

T.  v.  Composed  A.D.  11-12,  cf.  v.  10.  1  (after  three 
winters  or  in  the  third  winter  in  Pontus,  i.e. 
in  the  winter,  cf.  A.D.  11-12,  or  spring  of 
A.D.  12).  Also  Ovid  has  not  yet  heard  of  the 
triumph  of  Tiberius,  January  16,  A.D.  13,1  i.e. 
he  is  writing  before  that  date. 

1  Cf.  H.   Schulz,  Quaestiones    Ovid.,    1883,  p.    15,    and 
Mommsen,  Provinces  (Engl.  transl.),  i.  p.  55. 

xxxiv 


INTRODUCTION 

P.  i.-iii.  were  published  as  a  unit,  cf.  the  proem 
(i.  1)  and  the  epilogue  (iii.  9)  to  Brutus. 

P.  i.-iii.  Composed  A.D.  12-13.  The  triumph  is 
expected,  i.e.  before  January  16,  A.D.  13, 
and  therefore  late  in  A.D.  12,  cf.  iii.  3.  86. 
Other  references  to  the  triumph  imply  that 
Ovid  is  writing  not  long  before  it  or  not  long 
after  it,  i.e.  in  the  latter  part  of  A.D.  12  or 
the  early  part  of  A.D.  13,  cf.  ii.  1.  1  and  46  ; 
ii.  2.  75;  ii.  5.  27;  iii.  1.  1,36;  iii.  4.  3  if. 
Also  Ovid  is  in  Tomis  for  the  fourth  winter, 
i.e.  the  winter  of  12-13  A.D.,  cf.  i.  2.  26,  and 
for  the  fourth  autumn,  i.e.  the  autumn  of 
A.D.  12,  cf.  i.  8.  27.  Lastly  iv.  4  was  sent  to 
Sex.  Pompey  before  he  entered  on  his  consul- 
ship in  A.D.  I!-,  i.e.  this  poem  of  the  fourth 
book  was  written  in  the  latter  part  of  A.D.  13. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  some  of  the  letters 
which  cannot  be  dated  may  have  been  written 
before  some  of  the  later  Tristia. 

P.  iv.  Composed  A.D.  13-16.  P.  iv.  4  belongs  to 
A.D.  13  (see  above),  iv.  5  to  A.D.  14,  since  it 
was  written  after  Pompey  became  consul, 
iv.  6  was  written  after  Augustus's  death,  i.e. 
in  the  autumn  A.D.  14.  The  sixth  summer 
(iv.  10.  1)  and  the  sixth  winter  (iv.  13.  40)  in 
Tomis  are  mentioned,  i.e.  the  summer  of 
A.D.  14  and  the  winter  of  A.D.  14-15.  The 
latest  reference  is  that  to  the  consulship  of 
Graecinus  (iv.  9-  4),  and  since  he  was  consul 
suffectus  A.D.  16,  arid  the  letter  wras  intended 
to  reach  him  on  the  day  he  took  office 
in  May,  it  was  probably  written  early  in 
A.D.  16, 

XXXV 


INTRODUCTION 

Thus  the  letters  of  P.  iv.,  so  far  as  they  can  be 
dated,  were  composed  A.D.  13-16,  but  some  of  the 
letters  which  cannot  be  dated  may  have  been 
written  a  little  before  or  a  little  after  this  period. 
Since  the  book  has  no  proem  and  several  of  the 
letters  are  addressed  to  persons  not  mentioned 
before,  it  is  probable  that  Ovid  did  not  himself 
collect  these  letters  for  publication  in  book  form. 
Perhaps,  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  preparing  to 
do  so,  for  iv.  16  has  the  air  of  having  been  written 
as  an  epilogue.  It  is  a  variation  on  that  assertion 
of  fame  which  was  a  convention  with  Augustan  poets, 
only,  since  Ovid  regarded  himself  as  already  dead 
to  the  world,  Horace's  non  omnis  mortar  becomes 
here  a  non  omnis  mortuus  sum. 

The  internal  evidence  already  cited  shows  that 
it  was  Ovid's  custom  to  send  each  letter  separately 
to  its  recipient,  and  when  enough  letters  had 
accumulated  to  collect  them  for  publication  in  book 
form.  At  the  time  of  publication  it  is  possible 
that  he  excluded  some  letters  which  had  been  sent 
separately  ;  certainly  he  added  the  introductory 
and  perhaps  some  of  the  closing  poems.  Each  book, 
save  T.  ii.,  which  is  one  long  composition,  and 
P.  iv.  (see  above),  is  provided  with  such  poems,  and 
the  same  is  true  of  P.  i.-iii.,  which  for  purposes  of 
publication  formed  a  unit.  With  this  exception 
each  book  also  was  published  separately  (cf.  T.  v. 
1.  1  f.). 

The  arrangement  of  letters  within  the  books  is 
not  chronological.  This  is  proved  for  the  Pontic 
Epistles  by  the  chronological  references  which  they 
contain,  and  by  Ovid's  statement  that  the  pieces 
of  P.  i.-iii.  were  collected  "  without  order  "  (P.  iii. 
xxxvi 


INTRODUCTION 

9.  53),  which  refers  primarily  if  not  exclusively  to 
chronological  order,  and  it  is  probable  for  the  Tristia. 
since  at  least  the  proems  do  not  owe  their  positions 
to  considerations  of  chronology.  We  should  make 
an  exception  to  this  general  principle  when  pairs 
of  letters  to  the  same  person  occur  within  a  book. 
Such  pairs  seem  to  be  in  chronological  order.  The 
letters  are  therefore  not  arranged  chronologically 
but  so  as  to  present  as  much  variety  as  possible. 

As  Ovid  himself  states  (P.  i.  1.  15  ff.),  the  Tristia 
do  not  differ  essentially  from  the  Pontic  Epistles  except 
that,  so  far  as  the  epistolary  form  is  concerned,  the 
recipients  of  the  Tristia  are  not  addressed  by  name. 
The  term  epistula  is  in  fact  used  of  one  of  the  Tristia 
(T.  v.  4.  1).  In  the  Tristia  only  the  members  of 
the  imperial  house  are  addressed  by  name  * ;  in  the 
Pontic  Epistles  all  the  persons  addressed  are  named 
save  two  enemies  (P.  iv.  3  and  16)  and  one  friend 
who  was  still  afraid  to  be  connected  so  openly  with 
the  exile  (P.  iii.  6). 

Saint  Jerome,  in  his  continuation  of  the  Chronicle 
ofEusebius  says,  under  the  year  A.D.  16  or  (according 
to  some  manuscripts)  17,  that  Ovid  died  in  exile 
and  was  buried  near  Tomis.  The  dates  agree  well 
with  the  latest  datable  reference  in  the  poems  from 
exile — the  consulship  of  Graecinus,  A.D.  16.  The 
date  A.D.  18,  which  is  often  given,  is  based  on  Fasti 
i.  223-226,  a  reference  to  the  restoration  of  the  temple 
of  Janus,  near  the  theatre  of  Marcellus,  which  was 
completed  by  Tiberius  in  that  year.  But  this 
restoration  was  begun  by  Augustus,  and  Ovid's 
words  do  not  certainly  imply  that  the  work  was 
completed  at  the  time  he  was  writing. 
1  Except  Perilla  (T.  iii.  7). 

xxxvii 


INTRODUCTION 

A  smaller  share  of  the  fame  which  Ovid  often 
prophesies  for  his  verse  fell  to  the  poems  from  exile 
than  to  other  parts  of  his  work,  especially  the 
Metamorphoses,  and  yet  there  is  abundant  evidence 
that  this  poetry  of  his  declining  years  has  been  read 
almost  continuously  from  his  own  time  to  ours. 
During  the  centuries  of  the  Empire  it  is  constantly 
mentioned  and  often  imitated  by  the  poets,  both 
pagan  and  Christian,  although  the  prose  writers 
contain  few  references.  From  early  in  the  second 
century  to  the  first  half  of  the  fourth  there  is  a 
period  of  silence,  but  the  references  then  begin  once 
more  and  continue  through  the  Carlovingian  Age 
and  the  Middle  Ages  to  the  Renaissance.  If  space 
permitted,  a  long  list  of  poets  might  be  given  who 
knew  and  used  these  works  of  Ovid. 

In  the  Middle  Ages  Ovid  was,  with  Vergil  and 
Horace,  one  of  the  best  known  Roman  writers. 
Many  library  catalogues  contain  lists  of  his  works, 
Latin  poems  such  as  the  Nux,  the  Elegia  de  Philomela, 
the  Laus  Pisonis,  were  attributed  to  him,  and  new 
poems  composed  in  imitation  of  him  were  published 
under  his  name.  The  great  vogue  of  the  Tristia, 
and  in  less  degree  the  Pontic  Epistles,  came  in  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries.  They  were  used 
for  the  construction  of  fanciful  lives  of  the  poet 
and  even  introduced  into  schools.  They  were  much 
imitated  and  pillaged  ;  in  the  fourteenth  century 
Alberto  Mussato,  the  friend  of  Dante,  composed  a 
cento  from  the  Tristia,  and  Dante  himself  made  use 
of  the  Tristia  together  with  the  other  works  of 
Ovid.  To  this  interest  we  owe  the  numerous 
manuscripts  which  date  from  this  period,  and  the 
careful  study  devoted  to  the  poet  is  manifest  in 
xxxviii 


INTRODUCTION 

the  throng  of  interpolations,  showing  knowledge 
of  the  verse  technique,  with  which  these  manuscripts 
are  filled.  In  the  fifteenth  century  the  number  of 
manuscripts  greatly  increased  and  two  editiones 
principes  appeared  in  1471,  at  Rome  and  Bologna 
respectively.  Both  are  folios  in  two  volumes,  and 
both  include,  in  addition  to  the  Tristia  and  Pontic 
Epistles,  together  with  most  of  the  other  authentic 
works,  some  of  the  poems  wrongly  attributed  to 
Ovid. 

The  influence  of  Ovid  on  the  literatures  of  modern 
Europe  lias  been  very  great  and  extends  to  writers 
of  the  first  rank — Goethe,  Shakespeare,  etc. — but 
it  is  impossible  to  discuss  it  here.  The  subject  lias  by 
no  means  been  thoroughly  investigated,  but  the  works 
cited  in  the  Bibliography  will  give  the  reader  at 
least  a  general  idea  of  its  extent  and  its  importance. 


THE  TEXT 

The  text  of  the  Tristia  depends  in  the  main  upon  seven 
manuscripts,  several  of  which  are  fragmentary  : 

6,  the  Treves  fragment,  of  the  tenth  century,  containing 
only  T.  ii.  11.  1-31,  33-ii.  21;  and  "iv.  4.  3.5-65, 
67-v.  9. 

L,  in  the  Laurentian  Library.  Parts  of  this  MS. 
belong  to  the  eleventh  century,  parts  to  the 
fifteenth,  and  there  is  a  lacuna  of  398  lines  (iii.  7- 
2-iv.  1.  11).  Because  of  the  fragmentary  condition 
of  B  the  older  parts  of  L  are  the  mainstay  of  the 
text. 

A,  probably  of  the  eleventh  century,  a  MS.  now  lost, 
many  of  whose  readings  are  known  from  marginalia 
by  Poliziano  in  an  edition  now  in  the  Bodleian 
Library. 

xxxix 


INTRODUCTION 

G,  of  the  thirteenth  century,  a  MS.  at  Wolffenbuttel. 
H,  of  the  thirteenth  century,  a  MS.  at  Holkham  House, 

seat  of  the  Earl  of  Leicester. 
P,  of  the  fifteenth  century,  a  Vatican  MS. 
V,  of  the  thirteenth  century,  also  in  the  Vatican. 

The  last  five  manuscripts  constitute  the  second  class 
and  are  most  important  where  B  and  L  are  not  available. 
All  five  come  from  some  source  which  contained  many 
interpolations  (glosses,  conjectures,  etc.),  so  that  it  is 
often  very  difficult  on  their  evidence  alone  to  ascertain 
the  right  reading. 

Occasional  help  is  derived  from  a  third  class,  the 
inferior  manuscripts.  Readings  derived  from  these  are 
marked  by  the  symbol  r.  The  deflorationes  also  (excerpts 
made  in  the  Middle  Ages)  are  of  some  service. 

The  best  manuscripts  of  the  Pontic  Epistles  represent 
(except  II,  which  contains  the  Tristia  also)  a  different 
tradition  from  that  of  the  Tristia.  The  most  important 
are  : 

G,  of  the  sixth  century,  a  mere  fragment  containing 
only  P.  iv.  9,  101-108,  127-133,  and  iv.  12,  15-19, 
41-44. 
Class  I.  : 

A,  of  the  ninth  century,  at  Hamburg  ;  fragmentary, 

containing  only  P.  i.-iii.  2.  67,  except  i.  3  which 
is  omitted. 

B,  of  the  twelfth  century,  at  Munich  (No.  384). 

C,  of  the  twelfth  century,  at  Munich  (No.  19,476). 
Class  II. : 

E,  of  the  thirteenth  century,  at  Eton. 

H,  of  the  thirteenth  century,  at  Holkham  House. 

O,  of  the  fifteenth  century,  in  the  Bodleian. 

Other  manuscripts  of  this  class  and  also  the  later 
manuscripts  (s~)  are  of  occasional  service.  These  manu- 
scripts, like  those  of  the  same  period  of  the  Tristia,  have 
been  much  tinkered. 

G  and  A  are  best.     When  these  are  not  available,  B9  0 
afford  the  best  basis,  supplemented  by  E,  II,  O. 
xl 


INTRODUCTION 

Some  light  is  thrown  on  the  text  of  the  Tristia  and  Ex 
Ponto  by  inscriptions  and  the  testimony  of  other  Latin 
writers,  but  this  material  is  meagre. 

The  text  of  the  present  volume  is  based  in  the  main 
upon  that  of  R.  Ehwald,  Leipzig,  1884  (Teubner  text)1 
together  with  the  many  modifications  suggested  by  the 
same  scholar's  publications  since  1884.  But  the  trans- 
lator has  also  profited  greatly  by  the  labours  of  other 
scholars,  especially  S.  G.  Owen  (see  Bibliog.).  The 
present  text  differs  in  hundreds  of  places  from  both 
Ehwald  and  Owen. 

In  the  brief  critical  apparatus  an  effort  has  been  made 
(1)  to  indicate  all  passages  in  which  the  text  adopted 
does  not  rest  on  good  sources,  and  (2)  to  give  a  running 
selection  of  variants  contained  in  the  better  sources. 
Thus,  a  reading  reprinted  in  the  critical  apparatus  with 
an  appended  b~  is  taken  from  the  later  and  inferior  manu- 
scripts ;  a  reading  followed  by  the  name  of  a  scholar 
is  a  conjecture  by  that  scholar.  Variants  printed  without 
symbols  are  always  derived  from  one  or  more  of  the 
better  manuscripts.  This  system  has  been  adopted  to 
save  space,  since  the  purpose  of  the  critical  apparatus  is 
merely  to  indicate  to  readers  who  may  be  interested  the 
corrupt  passages  and  to  give  some  idea  of  the  extent  to 
which  the  manuscripts  have  been  interpolated.  For 
full  lists  of  variants  Owen's  editions  should  be  consulted. 

1  The  translator  regrets  that  the  new  edition  of  this  text 
by  R.  Ehwald  and  F.  Levy  came  into  his  hands  after  the 
final  proofs  of  this  volume  had  been  corrected,  and  so  could 
not  be  used. 


xli 


SELECTED  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

ON  OVID'S  LIFE 
Benger,   G.,   Rumania  in  1900.    Translated   by   A.   H. 

Keane,  London,  1900. 
Besnier,    M.,    "  Sulmo,    patrie    d'Ovide."     In    Melanges 

Boissier,  1903. 
Boissier,  G.,  L' Opposition  sous  les  Cesar •*,  Paris,  1909,  pp. 

106-159  (on  Ovid's  exile). 
De  la  Ville  de  Mirmont,  H.,  La  Jeunesse  d'Ovide,  Paris, 

1905. 
Mtillenhoff,  K.,  Deutsche  Altertumskunde,  Dritter  Band, 

Berlin,  1892,  pp.  125  if.  (on  the  Getae). 
Ne*methy,  G.,  Commentarius  eocegeticus  ad  Ovidii  Tristia, 

Budapestini,   1913.      Excursus   I.    De   tertia    Ovidii 

uxore.     II.,  De  causa  relegationis. 
Pick,  B.,  and  Regling,  R.,  Antike  Miinzen  Nordgriechen- 

lands,  Berlin,  1898,  1910  (on  Tomis  and  its  history). 
Pittard,  E.,  La  Roumanie,  Paris,  1917. 
Schulze,  W.,  "  Zur  Geschichte  lateinischer  Eigennamen," 

Abhandlungen   der   Konigl.    Gesellschaft    der    Wissen- 

schaften  zu  Gb'ttingen,  Philolog.-hist.  Klasse,  Berlin, 

1904. 

ON  THE  CONTENT,  PERSONS,  CHRONOLOGY,  ETC. 

Graeber,  G.,  Quacstiones  Ovidianae.     Pars  I.     Elberfeld, 

1881. 
Graeber,  G.,   Untersuchungcn  fiber  Ovids  Brief e  aus  der 

Verbannung  (Part  II.  of  Graeber 's  work  on  chronology 

and  the  persons  addressed),  Elberfeld,  1884. 
Prosopographia  Imperil  Romani9  edited  by  E.  Klebs  and 

others,  Berolini,  1897-98. 
Wartenburg,    G.,    Quaestiones    Ovidianae,   etc.,    Berolini, 

1884. 
xlii 


INTRODUCTION 


ON  THE  TEXT  AND  ITS  HISTORY 

Ehwald,   R.,   Ad   historiam   carminum    Ovidianorum   re- 

censionemque  symbolae,  i.  Gothae,  1889,  ii.  Gothae, 

1892. 
Ehwald,  R.,  Kritische  Beitrage  zu  Ovids  Epistulae  ex  Ponto, 

Gotha,  1896. 
Owen,  S.  G.,  Prolegomena  to  his  edition  of  the  Tristia, 

Oxford,  1889. 
Schreuders,  O.,  Observations  in  P.  Ovidii  Nasonis  ex  Ponto 

libros  i.-iii.,  Lugduni  Batavorum,  1895. 
Tank,  F.,  De  Tristibus  Ovidii  recensendis,  Stettini,  1879. 
Vogel,    P.,    Kritische    und   cxegetische    Bemerkungen    zu 

Ovids  Tristien,  Schneeburg,  1891. 

ON  OVID'S  INFLUENCE  IN  LATER  TIMES 

Ehwald,  R.  (see  preceding  section,  first  title). 

Manitius,  M.,  "  Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  des  Ovidius,  etc., 

im    Mittelalter,"    Philologus,    Supplement  band    vii., 

1899,  pp.  723-767. 
Owen,  S.  G.,  Edition  of  Tristia,  1889,  pp.  247-267  (list  of 

imitations  by  Ovid  and  of  Ovid). 
Owen,    S.    G.,    "  Ovid    and    Romance,"    in    the    volume 

entitled  English  Literature  and  the  Classics,  ed.  by 

G.  S.  Gordon,  Oxford,  1912. 
Root,  R.  K.,  Classical  Mythology  in  Shakespeare,  New  York, 

1903. 
Schevill,  R.,  Ovid  and  the  Renascence  in  Spain,  Univ.  of 

California,  1913. 
Paris,  G.,  "  Chretien  Legouais  et  les  autres  traducteurs 

on  imitateurs  d'Ovide,"  in  Ilistoire  Hit.  de  la  France, 

tome  xxix.  (1885),  pp.  455-525. 

Paris,  G.,  la  Potsie  du  moyen  age,  1887,  pp.  189-209. 
Langlois,  E.,  Origines  et  sources  du  Roman  de  la  Rose, 

Paris,  1891. 
Zingerle,  A.,  Zu  spdteren  lateinischen  Dichtern  (two  parts), 

Oeniponti,  1873,  1879. 
Zingerle,  A.,  Martials  Ovidstudien,  Oeniponti,  1877- 

xliii 


INTRODUCTION 


GENERAL  WORKS 

Ehwald,  R.,  and  A.  Riese,  Reviews  of  work  on  Ovid  in 
Bursian's  Jahresbericht  liber  die  Fortschritte  der 
klassischen  Altertumswissennchaft,  1873-1919.  (The 
earlier  reviews  are  by  A.  Riese.) 

Schanz,  M.,  GescJnchte  der  rdmiscJien  Littcratur,  vol.  viii. 
2.  1  (1911)  of  I.  Muller's  Handbuch  der  klassischen 
Alter  tumswissenschaft. 

EDITIONS 

Editiones    principes.     Rome    and    Bologna,    1471.     (See 

p.  xxxix.) 
N.  Heinsius,  revised   by  J.   F.   Fischer  (all  the  works). 

Lipsiae,  1758  (\vith  word  index). 
R.  Merkel  and  R.  Ehwald,  vol.  iii.  Tristia,  Ex  Ponto,  etc. 

Teubner  text.     Lipsiae,    1884.     (A   new   edition  by 

R.  Ehwald  and  F.  Levy  appeared  in  1922.) 
R.  Merkel,  Tristia  and  Ibis.     Annotated.     Berlin,  1837. 
A.  Riese,  Tauchnitz  text  (all  the  works).     Lipsiae,  1871-74. 
V.  Loers,  Tristia.     Annotated.     Trier,  1839. 
G.  Ndmethy,  Tristia.     Commentarius  exegeticus.     Buda- 

pestini,  1913. 
S.  G,  Owen,  Tristia.     Elaborate  edition  with  Prolegomena, 

etc.     Oxford,  1889. 
S.  G.  Owen,  Tristia,  Ibis,  Epistulae  ex  Ponto,  fragments. 

Oxford  text,  1915. 

E.  Cocchia,  Tristia.     Annotated.     Turin,  1900. 
O.  Korn,  Epistulae  ex  Ponto.     Lipsiae,  1868. 
G.  N^methy,   Epistulae  ex   Ponto.     Commentarius  exe- 

geticus.     Budapestini,  1915. 

Full  lists  of  editions  may  be  found  in  Owen's  edition 
of  the  Tristia,  1889,  and  in  Schanz 's  Geschichte  der 
rfimischcn  Litteratur.  Besides  complete  editions  many 
selections  or  editions  of  single  books  have  been  published. 


xliv 


OVID'S   TRISTIA 


TRIST1UM    LIBER    PRIMUS 


I. 

Parve — nee  invideo — sine  me,  liber,  ibis  in  urbern. 

ei  mihi,  quod ]  domino  non  licet  ire  tuo  ! 
vade,  sed  incultus,  qualem  decet  exulis  esse  ; 

infelix  habitum  temporis  huius  habe. 
5  nee  te  purpureo  velent  vaccinia  fuco — 

non  est  conveniens  luctibus  ille  color — 
nee  titulus  minio,  nee  cedro  charta  notetur, 

Candida  nee  nigra  cornua  fronte  geras. 
felices  ornent  haec  instrumenta  libellos  ; 
10      fortunae  memorem  te  decet  esse  meae. 
nee  fragili  geminae  poliantur  purnice  frontes, 

hirsutus  sparsis  ut  videare  cornis. 
neve  liturarum  pudeat  ;   qui  viderit  illas, 

de  lacrimis  factas  sentiet 2  esse  meis. 
15  vade,  liber,  verbisque  meis  loca  grata  saluta  : 

contingam  certe  quo  licet  ilia  pede. 
siquis,  ut  in  populo,  nostri  non  inmemor  illi,3 

siquis,  qui,  quid  agam,  forte  requirat,  crit, 

1  cum  vel  quo  2  sentiat  corr.  r  3  illo 

1  The  order  of  the  poems  is  not  chronological.     (See 
Introd.  p.  xxxvi.) 

2 


OVID'S   TRISTIA— BOOK   I 

I.    THE  POET  TO  HIS  Boon1 

LITTLE  book,  you  will  go  without  me  —  and  T 
grudge  it  not — to  the  city.  Alas  that  your  master 
is  not  allowed  to  go  !  Go,  but  go  unadorned,  as 
becomes  the  book  of  an  exile ;  in  your  misfortune 
wear  the  garb  that  befits  these  days  of  mine.  You 
shall  have  no  cover  dyed  with  the  juice  of  purple 
berries — no  fit  colour  is  that  for  mourning  ;  your 
title  shall  not  be  tinged  with  vermilion  nor  your 
paper  with  oil  of  cedar  ;  and  you  shall  wear  no 
white  bosses  upon  your  dark  edges.2  Books  of  good 
omen  should  be  decked  with  such  things  as  these  ; 
'tis  my  fate  that  you  should  bear  in  mind.  Let  no 
brittle  pumice  polish  your  two  edges  ;  I  would  have 
you  appear  with  locks  all  rough  and  disordered. 
Be  not  ashamed  of  blots  ;  he  who  sees  them  will 
feel  that  they  were  caused  by  my  tears. 

15  Go,  my  book,  and  in  my  name  greet  the  loved 
places  :  I  will  tread  them  at  least  with  what  foot  3 
I  may.  If,  as  is  natural  in  so  great  a  throng,  there 
shall  be  any  there  who  still  remembers  me,  any 
who  may  perchance  ask  how  I  fare,  you  are  to  say 

2  In  Ovid's  time  the  Roman  book  was  a  roll.  The  ends 
of  the  rod  (bosses,  knobs)  were  called  cornua  (**  horns  "). 

8  i.e.  metrical  foot. 

3 


OVID 

vivere  me  dices,  salvum  tamen  esse  negabis  ; 
20      id  quoque,  quod  vivam,  munus  habere  del. 
atque  ita  tu  tacitus — quaerenti  plura  legendus l — 

ne,  quae  non  opus  est,  forte  loquare,  cave ! 
protinus  admonitus  repetet  mea  crimina  lector, 

et  peragar  populi  publicus  ore  reus. 
25  tu  cave  defendas,  quamvis  mordebere  dictis  ; 

causa  patrocinio  non  bona  maior  2  erit. 
invenies  aliquem,  qui  me  suspiret  ademptum, 

carmina  nee  siccis  perlegat  ista  genis, 
et  tacitus  secum,  ne  quis  malus  audiat,  optet, 
30      sit  mea  lenito  Caesare  poena  levis. 

nos  quoque,  quisquis  erit,  ne  sit  miser  ille,  precamur, 

placatos  miseris  qui  volet  esse  deos  ; 
quaeque  volet,  rata  sint,  ablataque  principis  ira 

sedibus  in  patriis  det  mihi  posse  mori. 
35  ut  peragas  mandata,  liber,  culpabere  forsan 

ingeniique  minor  laude  ferere  mei. 
iudicis  officium  est  ut  res,  ita  tempora  rerum 

quaerere.     quaesito  tempore  tutus  eris. 
carmina  proveniunt  ammo  deducta  sereno  ; 
40      nubila  sunt  subitis  tempora  nostra  malis. 
carmina  secessum  scribentis  et  otia  quaerunt ; 

me  mare,  me  venti,  me  fera  iactat  hiems. 
carminibus  metus  omnis  obest  3  ;  ego  perditus  ensem 

haesurum  iugulo  iam  puto  iamque  meo. 
45  haec  quoque  quod  facio,  iudex  mirabitur  aequus, 
scriptaque  cum  venia  qualiacumque  leget. 

1  legend um  corr.  Ehwald  *  peior  T 

8  abest  corr.  Francius 


TRISTIA,  I.  i.  19-46 

that  I  live,  yet  not  in  health  and  happiness  ;  that 
even  the  fact  of  life  I  hold  to  be  the  gift  of  a  god. 
Except  for  this  be  silent — for  he  who  asks  more 
must  read  you — and  take  care  that  you  chance  not 
to  say  what  you  should  not ;  forthwith,  if  but  a 
reminder  be  given,  the  reader  will  recall  my  sins, 
and  I  shall  still  be  convicted  by  the  people's  voice 
as  a  public  criminal.  Do  you  take  care  to  make  no 
defence  though  attacked  with  biting  words  ;  my 
case  is  not  a  good  one,  and  will  prove  too  difficult 
for  advocacy.  You  are  to  find  one  who  sighs 
over  my  exile,  reading  your  lines  with  cheeks  that 
are  not  dry,  one  who  will  utter  a  silent  prayer 
unheard  by  any  ill-wisher,  that  through  the  soften- 
ing of  Caesar's  anger  my  punishment  may  be 
lightened.  On  my  part  I  pray  that  whoever  he 
may  be,  suffering  may  not  come  to  him  who  wishes 
the  gods  to  be  kind  to  suffering.  May  his  wish  be 
fulfilled  !  May  the  removal  of  the  Prince's  wrath 
grant  me  the  power  to  die  at  home  in  my  country  ! 

35  Though  you  should  carry  out  my  directions 
you  will  be  criticized  perchance,  my  book,  and  re- 
garded as  beneath  the  glory  of  my  genius.  Tis 
a  judge's  duty  to  investigate  both  the  circumstances 
and  the  time"  of  an  act.  If  they  ask  the  time  you 
will  be  secure.  Poetry  comes  fine  spun  from  a 
mind  at  peace  ;  my  days  are  clouded  with  un- 
expected woes.  Poetry  requires  the  writer  to  be 
in  privacy  and  ease  ;  I  am  harassed  by  the  sea,  by 
gales,  by  wintry  storms.  Poetry  is  injured  by  any 
fear  ;  I  in  my  ruin  am  ever  and  ever  expecting  a 
sword  to  pierce  my  throat.  Even  the  making  of 
such  verse  as  this  will  surprise  a  fair-minded  critic 
and  he  will  read  these  verses  with  indulgence,  how- 

5 


OVID 

da  mihi  Maeoniden  et  tot  circumice l  casus, 

ingenium  tantis  excidet  omne  mails, 
denique  securus  famae,  liber,  ire  memento, 
50      nee  tibi  sit  lecto  displicuisse  pudor. 

non  ita  se  nobis  praebet  Fortuna  secundam, 

ut  tibi  sit  ratio  laudis  habenda  tuae. 
donee  eram  sospes,  tituli  tangebar  amore, 

quaerendique  mihi  nominis  ardor  erat. 
55  carmina  nunc  si  non  studiumque,  quod  obfuit,  odi, 

sit  satis  ;  ingenio  sic  fuga  parta  meo. 
tu  tamen  i  pro  me,  tu,  cui  licet,  aspice  Romam. 

di  facerent,  possem  nunc  meus  esse  liber  ! 
nee  te,  quod  venias  magnam  peregrinus  in  urbem, 
60      ignotum  populo  posse  venire  puta. 
ut  titulo  careas,  ipso  noscere  colore  ; 

dissimulare  velis,  te  liquet  esse  meum. 
clam  tamen  intrato,  ne  te  mea  carmina  lacdant ; 

non  sunt  ut  quondam  plena  favoris  erant. 
65  siquis  erit,  qui  te,  quia  sis  meus,  esse  legendum 

non  putet,  e  gremio  reiciatque  suo, 
"  inspice  "   die   "  titulum.      non   sum  praeceptor 

amoris  ; 

quas  meruit,  poenas  iam  dedit  illud  opus/' 

forsitan  expectes,  an  in  alta  Palatia  missum 

70      scandere  te  iubeam  Caesareamque  domurn. 

ignoscant  augusta  mihi  loca  dique  locorum  1 

venit  in  hoc  ilia  fulmen  ab  arce  caput. 

1  circumice  Heinsius  :   circumspice 

6 


TRISTIA,  I.  i.  47-72 

ever  poor  they  are.  Pray  bring  the  Maeonian1 
and  cast  just  as  many  dangers  about  him  ;  all  his 
genius  will  fall  away  in  the  presence  of  such  great 
ills. 

49  Take  heed,  then,  my  book,  to  go  untroubled 
about  fame,  and  be  not  ashamed  that  your  readers 
gain  no  pleasure.  Fortune  is  not  now  so  favourable 
to  me  that  you  should  take  account  of  your  praise. 
In  the  time  of  my  security  I  was  touched  by  the 
love  of  renown,  and  I  burned  to  win  a  name.  Now 
let  it  be  enough  if  I  do  not  hate  poetry  and  the 
pursuit  which  has  injured  me  ;  through  that  my 
own  wit  has  brought  me  exile.  But  do  you  go  in 
my  stead,  do  you,  who  are  permitted  to  do  so,  gaze 
on  Rome  !  Would  that  the  gods  might  grant  me 
now  to  be  my  book  ! — and  think  not,  because  you 
enter  into  the  great  city  as  one  from  foreign  lands, 
that  you  can  come  as  a  stranger  to  the  people. 
Though  you  should  lack  a  title,  your  very  style  will 
bring  recognition  ;  though  you  should  wish  to 
play  the  deceiver,  it  is  clear  that  you  are  mine. 
And  yet  enter  secretly,  that  my  verses  may  not 
harm  you  ;  they  are  not  popular  as  once  they  were. 
If  there  shall  be  anybody  who  thinks  you  unworthy 
to  be  read  for  the  reason  that  you  are  mine  and 
repels  you  from  his  breast,  say  to  him,  "  Examine 
the  title.  I  am  not  the  teacher  of  love  ;  that  work  2 
has  already  paid  its  deserved  penalty." 

69  Perchance  you  are  waiting  to  see  if  I  shall 
send  you  to  the  lofty  Palatine  and  bid  you  mount 
to  Caesar's  house.  May  those  places  of  awe  and 
the  gods  of  those  places  grant  me  pardon  !  It  was 
from  that  citadel  that  the  bolt  fell  upon  this  head 
1  Homer.  2  A  reference  to  the  Ars  amatoria. 

7 


OVID 

esse  quidem  mernini  mitissima  sedibus  illis 

numina,  sed  timeo  qui  nocuere  deos. 
75  terretur  minimo  pennae  stridore  columba, 

unguibus,  accipiter,  saucia  facta  tuis. 
nee  procul  a  stabulis  audet  discedere,  siqua 

excussa  est  avidi  dentibus  agna  lupi. 
vitaret  caelum  Phaethon,  si  viveret,  et  quos 
80      optarat  stulte,  tangere  nollet  equos. 

me  quoque,  quae  sensi,  fateor  lovis  arma  timere  : 

me  reor  infesto,  cum  tonat,  igne  peti. 
quicumque  Argolica  de  classe  Capherea  fugit, 

semper  ab  Euboicis  vela  retorsit l  aquis  ; 
85  et  mea  cumba  semel  vasta  percussa  procella 

ilium,  quo  laesa  est,  horret  adire  locum, 
ergo  cave,  liber,  et  timida  circumspice  m^nte> 

ut  satis  a  media  sit  tibi  plebe  legi. 
dum  petit  infirmis  nimium  sublimia  peniiis 
90       Icarus,  aequoreas  nomine  fecit  aquas.2 
difficile  est  tarn  en  hinc,  remis  utaris  an  aura, 
dicere  :  consilium  resque  locusque  dabunt. 
si  poteris  vacuo  tradi,  si  cuncta  videbis 

mitia,  si  vires  fregerit  ira  suas, 
95  siquis  erit,  qui  te  dubitantem  et  adire  timentem 

tradat,  et  ante  tamen  pauca  loquatur,  adi. 
luce  bona  dominoque  tuo  felicior  ipso 
pervenias  illuc  et  mala  nostra  leves. 
namque  ea  vel  nemo,  vel  qui  mihi  vulnera  fecit 
100      solus  Achilleo  tollere  more  potest. 

1  retorquet  corr.  Bentley 
8  Icarias :  aequoreis  nomina  fecit  aquis  5" 


TRISTIA,  I.  i.  73-100 

of  mine.  There  are,  I  know,  in  those  shrines  deities 
of  exceeding  mercy,  but  I  still  fear  the  gods  who 
have  wrought  me  harm.  The  least  rustle  of  a 
feather  brings  dread  upon  the  dove  that  thy  talons, 

0  hawk,    have    wounded.     Nor    does    any    lamb, 
once  wrested  from  the  teeth  of  a  ravenous  wolf, 
venture  to  go  far  from  the  fold.     Phaethon  would 
avoid  the  sky  if  he  were  alive  ;    the  steeds  which 
in  his  folly  he  desired,  he  would  refuse  to  touch. 

1  too   admit — for   I   have   felt   it — that   I   fear  the 
weapon  of  Jupiter  :     I  believe  myself  the  target  of  a 
hostile    bolt    whenever    the    thunder    roars.     Every 
man  of  the  Argive  fleet  who  escaped  the  Capherean 
rocks  always  turned  his  sails  away  from  the  waters 
of  Euboea  ;  and  even  so  my  bark,  once  shattered  by 
a  mighty  storm,  dreads  to  approach  that  place  where 
it   was  wrecked.     Therefore   be   careful,   my   book, 
and  look  all  around  with  timid  heart,  so  as  to  find 
content  in  being  read  by  ordinary  folk.     By  seeking 
too  lofty  heights  on  weak  wings  Icarus  gave  a  name 
to   waters   of  the   sea.     Yet   from   this   position   of 
mine  'tis  hard  to  say  whether  you  should  use  the 
oars   or  the  breeze.     You   will  be   advised  by   the 
time  and  the  place.     If  you  can  be  handed  to  him  L 
when  he  is  at  leisure,  if  you  see  everything  kindly 
disposed,  if  his  anger  has  lost  its  keenness,  if  there 
is    anybody,    while    you    are    hesitating    in   fear    to 
approach,  who  will  hand  you   to  him,  introducing 
you  with  but  a  few  brief  words — then  approach  him. 
On    a    lucky    day    and    with    better    fortune    than 
your  master  may  you  arrive  there  and  lighten  my 
misfortunes.     For  either  nobody  can  remove  them 
or,  in  the  fashion  of  Achilles,  that  man  only  who 

1  The  Emperor. 

9 


OVID 

tantum  ne  noceas,  dum  vis  prodesse,  vide  to — 

nam  spes  est  animi  nostra  timore  minor — 
quaeque  quiescebat,  ne  mota  resaeviat  ira 

et  poenae  tu  sis  altera  causa,  cave  ! 
105  cum  tamen  in  nostrum  fueris  penetrale  receptus, 

contigerisque  tuam,  scrinia  curva,  domum, 
aspicies  illic  positos  ex  ordine  fratres, 

quos  studium  cunctos  evigilavit  idem, 
cetera  turba  palam  titulos  ostendet  apertos, 
110      et  sua  detecta  nomina  fronte  geret ; 

tres  procul  obscura  latitantes  parte  videbis, — 

sic  quoque,1  quod  nemo  nescit,  amare  docent. 
hos  tu  vel  fugias,  vel,  si  satis  oris  habebis, 

Oedipodas  facito  Telegonosque  voces. 
115  deque  tribus,  moneo,  si  qua  est  tibi  cura  parentis, 

ne  quemquam,  quamvis  ipse  docebit,  ames. 
sunt  quoque  mutatae,  ter  quinque  volumina,  formae, 

nuper  ab  exequiis  carmina  rapta  meis. 
his  mando  dicas,  inter  mutata  referri 
120      fortunae  vultum  corpora  posse  meae. 

namque  ea  dissimilis  subito  est  effecta  priori, 

flendaque  mine,  aliquo  tempore  laeta  fuit. 
plura  quidem  mandare  tibi,  si  quaeris,  habebam, 

sed  vereor  tardae  causa  fuisse  morae 2 ; 
125  et  si  quae  subeunt,  tecum,  liber,  omnia  ferres, 

sarcina  laturo  magna  futurus  eras. 

1  hi  qui  vel  hi  quoque  :  sic  quoque  Bentley 
2  viae 

1  See  Index,  s.v.  Telephus. 
10 


TRISTIA,  I.  i.  101-126 

wounded  me.1  Only  see  that  you  do  no  harm  in 
your  wish  to  help — for  my  hope  is  smaller  than  my 
fear — and  that  slumbering  wrath  ! — take  care  that  it 
be  not  roused  to  renewed  fierceness  and  that  you 
be  not  to  me  a  second  cause  of  punishment. 

105  But  when  you  find  refuge  in  my  sanctuary, 
reaching  your  own  home,  the  round  book-cases,  you 
will  behold  there  brothers  arranged  in  order — 
brothers  whom  the  same  craftmanship  produced 
with  toil  and  waking.  The  rest  of  the  band  will 
display  their  titles  openly,  bearing  their  names  on 
their  exposed  edges,  but  three  at  some  distance 
will  strive  to  hide  themselves  in  a  dark  place,  as 
you  will  notice — even  so,  as  everybody  knows, 
they  teach  how  to  love.  These  you  should  either 
avoid  or,  if  you  have  the  assurance,  give  them  the 
names  of  Oedipus  or  of  Telegonus.2  And  I  warn 
you,  if  you  have  any  regard  for  your  father,  love  not 
any  one  of  the  three,  though  he  himself  teach  you. 
There  are  also  thrice  five  rolls  about  changing  forms,3 
poems  recently  saved  from  the  burial  of  my  fortunes. 
To  these  I  bid  you  say  that  the  aspect  of  my  own 
fate  can  now  be  reckoned  among  those  metamor- 
phosed figures.  For  that  aspect  has  on  a  sudden 
become  quite  different  from  what  it  was  before — 
a  cause  of  tears  now,  though  once  of  joy.  More 
directions  for  you,  if  you  ask  me,  I  have  been 
keeping,  but  I  fear  to  be  the  cause  of  lingering  delay  ; 
and  if  you  were  to  carry  with  you,  my  book,  all  that 
occurs  to  me,  'tis  likely  you  would  be  a  heavy  burden 
to  him  who  shall  bear  you.  The  road  is  long.  Make 

2  Both  were  parricides,  and  so,  like  Ovid's  book,  destroyed 
the  author  of  their  being. 

3  The  Metamorphoses  in  fifteen  books. 

11 


OVID 

longa  via  est,  propera  !  nobis  habitabitur  orbis 
ultimus,  a  terra  terra  remota  mea. 


II. 

Di  maris  et  caeli — quid  enim  nisi  vota  supersunt  ?- 

solvere  quassatae  parcite  membra  ratis, 
neve,  precor,  magni  subscribite  Caesaris  irae  ! 

saepe  premente  deo  fert  deus  alter  opem. 
6  Mulciber  in  Troiam,  pro  Troia  stabat  Apollo  ; 

aequa  Venus  Teucris,  Pallas  iniqua  fuit. 
oderat  Aenean  propior  Saturnia  Turno  ; 

ille  tamen  Veneris  numine  tutus  erat. 
saepe  ferox  cautum  petiit  Neptunus  Ulixen ; 
10      eripuit  patruo  saepe  Minerva  suo. 

et  nobis  aliquod,  quamvis  distamus  ab  illis, 

quis  vetat  irato  numen  adesse  deo  ? 
verba  miser  frustra  non  proficientia  perdo. 

ipsa  graves  spargunt  ora  loquentis  aquae, 
15  terribilisque  Notus  iactat  mea  dicta,  precesque 

ad  quos  mittuntur,  non  sinit  ire  deos. 
ergo  idem  venti,  ne  causa  laedar  in  una, 

velaque  nescio  quo  votaque  nostra  ferunt. 
me  miserurn,  quanti  montes  volvuntur  aquarum  ! 
20      iam  iam  tacturos  sidera  summa  putes. 
quantae  diducto  subsidunt  aequore  valles  ! 

iam  iam  tacturas  Tartara  nigra  putes. 
quocumque  aspicio,  nihil  est,  nisi  pontus  et  aer, 

fluctibus  hie  tumidus,  nubibus  ille  minax. 
12 


TRISTIA,  I.  i.  127—n.  24 

haste  !     I  shall  continue  to  dwell  at  the  edge  of  the 
world,  a  land  far  removed  from  my  own. 


II.  STORM  AND  PRAYER 

O  gods  of  sea  and  sky — for  what  but  prayer  is 
left  ? — break  not  the  frame  of  our  shattered  bark 
and  second  not,  I  implore,  the  wrath  of  mighty 
Caesar  !  Oft  when  a  god  presses  hard  another  god 
brings  succour.  Mulciber  was  opposed  to  Troy, 
but  in  Troy's  defence  stood  Apollo  ;  Venus  favoured 
the  Teucrians,  Pallas  favoured  them  not.  There 
was  hate  for  Aeneas  on  the  part  of  Saturnia  who 
stood  closely  by  Turnus  ;  yet  that  hero  was  safe 
through  Venus'  power.  Ofttimes  unruly  Neptune 
assailed  the  wily  Ulysses  ;  ofttimes  Minerva  saved 
him  from  her  own  uncle.  And  different  though  I 
am  from  them,  who  forbids  a  divine  power  from 
being  of  some  avail  to  me  against  the  angry  god  ? 

13  But,  wretch  that  I  am,  to  no  purpose  am  I 
wasting  profitless  words.  My  very  lips  as  I  speak 
are  sprayed  by  the  heavy  waves,  and  dread  Notus 
hurls  away  my  words  nor  suffers  my  prayers  to 
reach  the  gods  to  whom  they  are  directed.  So  the 
same  winds,  that  I  be  not  punished  in  one  way  only, 
are  driving — I  know  not  whither — both  my  sails 
and  my  prayers.  Wretched  me  !  what  vast  moun- 
tains of  water  heave  themselves  aloft !  Now,  now, 
you  think,  they  will  touch  the  highest  stars.  What 
mighty  abysses  settle  beneath  us  as  the  flood  yawns 
apart !  Now,  now  you  think  they  will  touch 
black  Tartarus.  Wherever  I  gaze  there  is  naught 
but  sea  and  air — sea  swollen  with  billows,  air  athreat 

IS 


OVID 

25  inter  utrumque  fremunt  inmani  murmur e  venti. 

nescit,  cui  domino  pareat,  unda  maris. 
nam  modo  purpureo  vires  capit  Eurus  ab  ortu, 

nunc  Zephyrus  sero  vespere  missus  adest, 
nunc  sicca  gelidus  Boreas  bacchatur  ab  Arc  to, 
30      nunc  Notus  adversa  proelia  fronte  gerit. 
rector  in  incerto  est  nee  quid  fugiatve  petatve 

invenit  :  ambiguis  ars  stupet  ipsa  malis. 
scilicet  occidimus,  nee  spes  est  ulla  salutis, 

dumque  loquor,  vultus  obruit  unda  meos. 
35  opprimet  hanc  animam  fluctus,  frustraque  precanti 

ore  necaturas  accipiemus  aquas, 
at  pia  nil  aliud  quam  me  dolet  exule  coniunx  : 

hoc  unum  nostri  scitque  gemitque  mali. 
nescit  in  inmenso  iactari  corpora  ponto, 
40      nescit  agi  ventis,  nescit  adesse  necem. 

o  bene,  quod  non  sum  mecum  conscendere  passus, 

ne  mihi  mors  misero  bis  patienda  foret  ! 
at  nunc,  ut  peream,  quoniam  caret  ilia  periclo, 

dimidia  certe  parte  superstes  ero. 
45  ei  mihi,  quam  celeri  micuerunt  nubila  flamma  ! 

quantus  ab  aetherio  personat  axe  fragor  ! 
nee  levius  tabulae  laterum  feriuntur  ab  undis, 

quam  grave  balistae  moenia  pulsat  onus, 
qui  venit  hie  fluctus,  fluctus  supereminet  omnes  : 
60      posterior  nono  est  undecimoque  prior, 
nee  letum  timeo  ;  genus  est  miserabile  leti. 

demite  naufragium,  mors  mihi  munus  erit. 
est  aliquid,  fatove  suo  ferrove  ]  cadentem 

in  solida  2  moriens  ponere  corpus  humo, 

1  fatove  .  .  .  ferrove  Heinsius  :  fatoque  .  .  .  ferroque 
2  solita :  solida  r 

1  The  ancient  "  siege  gun,"  which  hurled  stones. 
14 


TRISTIA,  I.  n.  25-54 

with  clouds  ;  and  between  are  the  hum  and  roar 
of  the  cruel  winds.  The  waves  of  ocean  know  not 
what  master  to  obey.  For  now  Eurus  storms 
mightily  from  the  red  east,  now  Zephyrus  comes 
rushing  from  the  realm  of  late  evening,  now  Boreas 
raves  from  the  dry  pole-star,  now  Notus  battles  with 
opposing  brow.  The  helmsman  is  confused  nor 
can  he  find  what  to  avoid  or  what  to  seek  ;  his  very 
skill  is  numbed  by  the  baffling  perils.  We  are  surely 
lost,  there  is  no  hope  of  safety,  and  as  I  speak,  the 
waters  overwhelm  my  face.  The  billows  will  crush 
this  life  of  mine,  and  with  lips  that  pray  in  vain  I 
shall  drink  in  the  destroying  water. 

37  But  my  loyal  wife  grieves  for  naught  save  my 
exile — that  is  the  only  ill  of  mine  she  knows  and 
bemoans.  She  knows  not  that  I  am  buffeted  about 
on  the  vast  sea,  knows  not  that  I  am  harried  by  the 
winds,  knows  not  that  death  is  near  me.  Ah,  well 
it  was  that  I  suffered  her  not  to  board  ship  with  me, 
else  I,  poor  wretch,  should  now  be  forced  to  suffer  a 
double  death  !  But  as  it  is,  even  though  I  perish, 
in  her  freedom  from  peril  at  least  I  shall  half  survive. 
Alas  !  what  a  swift  glitter  of  flame  from  the  clouds  ! 
What  a  mighty  crash  roars  from  the  zenith  !  And 
no  lighter  blow  falls  upon  her  planks  from  the 
billows  than  the  heavy  pounding  of  the  balista1 
upon  a  wall.  Here  comes  a  wave  that  o'ertops 
them  all — the  wave  after  the  ninth  and  before  the 
eleventh.  I  fear  not  death  ;  'tis  the  form  of  death 
that  I  lament.  Save  me  from  shipwreck  and  death 
will  be  a  boon.  Tis  something  worth  if  falling  by 
fate  2  or  by  the  steel  one  rests  in  death  upon  the 
solid  ground,  utters  some  parting  words  to  friends, 
2  i.e.  natural  death. 

15 


OVID 

65  et  mandare  suis  aliqua  et 1  sperare  sepulcrum 

et  non  aequoreis  piscibus  esse  cibum. 
fingite  me  dignum  tali  nece,  non  ego  solus 

hie  vehor.    inmeritos  cur  mea  poena  trahit  ? 
pro  superi  viridesque  dei,  quibus  aequora  curae, 
60      utraque  iam  vestras  sistite  turba  minas, 
quamque  dedit  vitam  mitissima  Caesaris  ira, 

hanc  sinite  infelix  in  loca  iussa  feram. 
si  quantam  2  merui,  poena  me  perdere  vultis, 

culpa  mea  est  ipso  iudice  morte  minor. 
65  mittere  me  Stygias  si  iam  voluisset  in  undas 

Caesar,  in  hoc  vestra  non  eguisset  ope. 
est  illi  nostri  non  invidiosa  cruoris 

copia  ;  quodque  dedit,  cum  volet,  ipse  feret. 
vos  modo,  quos  certe  nullo,  puto,  crimine  laesi, 
70      contenti  nostris  iam,  precor,  este  malis  ! 
nee  tamen,  ut  cuncti  miserum  servare  velitis, 
quod  periit,  salvum  iam  caput  esse  potest. 
ut  mare  considat  ventisque  ferentibus  utar, 

ut  mihi  parcatis,  non  minus  exul  ero. 
75  non  ego  divitias  avidus  sine  fine  parandi 
latum  mutandis  mercibus  aequor  aro, 
nee  peto,  quas  quondam  petii  studiosus,  Athenas, 

oppida  non  Asiae,  non  loca  visa  prius, 
non  ut  Alexandri  claram  delatus  ad  urbem 
80      delicias  videam,  Nile  iocose,  tuas. 

quod  faciles  3  opto  ventos, — quis  credere  posset 4  ? — 

Sarmatis  est  tellus,  quam  mea  vela  petunt. 
obligor,  ut  tangam  laevi  fera  litora  Ponti  ; 
quodque  sit  a  patria  tarn 5  fuga  tarda,  queror. 

1  aliquid  et  corr.  S~ 

2  quoque  quam  vel  quia  :   quantam  Rappold 
3  facile  est :  faciles  Heinsius         *  possit          6  iam  corr.  £"" 

1  Possibly  laevi  here  means  •*  propitious,"  '•  favouring,"  cf 

16 


TRISTIA,  I.  n.  55-84 

and  looks  forward  to  a  tomb — not  to  be  the  food  of 
fishes  in  the  sea.  Suppose  me  deserving  of  such  a 
death,  yet  I  am  not  here  the  only  passenger.  Why 
does  my  punishment  involve  the  innocent  ?  O  ye 
gods  above  and  ye  of  the  green  flood,  who  rule  the 
waters, — stay  ye  now,  both  hosts  of  you,  your 
threats.  The  life  that  Caesar's  merciful  wrath  has 
granted,  let  me  carry,  unhappy  man  that  I  am,  to 
the  appointed  place.  If  ye  wish  to  ruin  me  with 
a  penalty  great  as  I  have  deserved,  my  fault  even  in 
my  judge's  eyes  merits  not  death.  If  ere  now 
Caesar  had  wished  to  send  me  to  the  waters  of  the 
Styx,  he  had  not  needed  your  aid  in  this.  He  has 
a  power  over  my  life  which  ye  may  not  begrudge  ; 
and  what  he  has  granted  he  will  take  away  when  he 
shall  wish.  But  ye,  whom  surely  no  crime  of  mine 
has  wronged,  be  content  by  now  with  my  woes. 
And  yet,  though  ye  be  all  willing  to  save  a  wretch, 
that  life  which  is  lost  cannot  now  be  safe.  Even 
should  the  sea  grow  calm  and  favouring  breezes 
bear  me  on — even  should  ye  spare  me — I  shall  be 
not  less  an  exile.  Not  in  greed  of  limitless  wealth 
do  I  plough  the  sea  to  trade  my  wares  nor  am  I 
on  my  way  to  Athens  as  once  I  was  while  a  student, 
nor  to  the  cities  of  Asia,  nor  the  places  I  have  seen 
before,  nor  am  I  sailing  to  Alexander's  famous 
city  to  see  thy  pleasures,  merry  Nile.  The  reason 
of  my  prayers  for  favouring  winds  (who  could  believe 
it  ?)  is  the  Sarmatian  land,  the  object  of  my  voyage. 
I  am  constrained  to  reach  the  wild  shores  of  ill- 
omened1  Pontus,  and  I  complain  that  my  journey 
into  exile  from  my  native  land  is  so  slow  !  That 

6  Euwi/iyxos  n6?ros, "  Pontus  of  the  fair  name.*'  Or  Ovid  means 
"  Pontus-on-the-left  "  (see  Introd.  p.  xxvii). 

c  17 


OVID 

85  nescio  quo  videam  positos  ut  in  orbe  Tomitas, 

exilem  facio  per  mea  vota  viam. 
sen  me  diligitis,  tantos  conpescite  fluctus, 

pronaque  sint  nostrae  numina  vestra  rati ; 
seu  magis  odistis,  iussae  me  advertite  terrae  : 
90      supplicii  pars  est  in  regione  mei.1 

ferte — quid  hie  facio  ? — rapidi  mea  corpora  2  venti  ! 

Ausonios  fines  cur  mea  vela  volunt  ? 
noluit  hoc  Caesar,     quid,  quem  fugat  ille,  tenetis  ? 

aspiciat  vultus  Pontica  terra  meos. 
95  et  iubet  et  merui  ;  nee,  quae  damnaverit  ille, 

crimina  defend!  fasque  piumque  puto. 
si  tamen  acta  deos  numquam  mortalia  fallunt, 

a  culpa  facinus  scitis  abesse  mea. 
immo  ita  si  scitis,  si  me  meus  abstulit  error, 
100      stultaque  mens  nobis,  non  scelerata  fuit, 
quod  licet  et  minimis,  domui  si  favimus  illi, 

si  satis  Augusti  publica  iussa  mihi, 
hoc  duce  si  dixi  felicia  saecula,  proque 

Caesare  tura  piis  Caesaribusque  dedi, — 
105  si  fuit  hie  animus  nobis,  ita  parcite  divi  ! 

si  minus,  alta  cadens  obruat  unda  caput ! 
fallor,  an  incipiunt  gravidae  vanescere  nubes, 

victaque  mutati  frangitur  unda  maris  ? 
non  casu,  vos  sed  sub  condicione  vocati, 
110      fallere  quos  non  est,  hanc  mihi  fertis  opem. 

III. 

Cum  subit  illius  tristissima  noctis  imago, 
qua  mihi  supremum  tempus  in  urbe  fuit, 

1  mori :  mei  £~  *  carbasa  :  corpora  T 

1  The  grandsons  and  adopted  sons  of  Augustus. 
18 


TRISTIA,  I.  ii.  85— in.  2 

I  may  see  the  Tomitans,  situate  in  some  corner  of 
the  world,  I  am  trying  to  shorten  the  road  by  prayer  ! 

87  If  it  be  that  you  love  me,  restrain  these  mighty 
billows,  and  let  your  powers  favour  my  bark  ;  or  if 
you  detest  me,  turn  me  towards  the  ordained  land  ; 
a  part  of  my  punishment  consists  in  the  place  of  it. 
Drive  me  on,  ye  swift  winds  !  What  have  I  to  do 
here  ?  Why  do  my  sails  crave  the  Ausonian  land  ? 
This  was  not  Caesar's  will.  Why  do  you  detain 
one  whom  he  drives  forth  ?  Let  the  land  of  Pontus 
behold  my  face.  He  commands  it  and  I  have 
deserved  it  ;  nor  do  I  account  it  lawful  and  righteous 
to  defend  the  sins  that  he  has  condemned.  Yet  if 
human  acts  never  deceive  the  gods,  ye  know  that 
no  guilty  deed  is  connected  with  my  fault.  Nay, 
if  such  your  knowledge,  if  a  mistake  of  mine  has 
carried  me  away,  if  stupid  was  my  mind,  not  criminal, 
if — as  even  the  humblest  may — I  have  supported 
that  house  with  favour,  if  the  public  commands  of 
Augustus  were  in  my  eyes  sufficient ;  if  under  his 
lead  1  have  sung  of  a  happy  age,  and  for  Caesar  and 
the  loyal  Caesars  l  I  have  offered  incense  ;  — if  such 
has  been  my  spirit,  then  spare  me,  gods  !  If  not, 
may  a  towering  wave  fall  and  whelm  my  head  ! 

107  Am  I  wrong  or  do  the  heavy  clouds  begin  to 
melt  away  and  is  the  water  of  the  changing  sea 
being  conquered  and  subdued  ?  It  is  no  chance, 
but  ye,  summoned  to  hear  my  pledge,  ye  whom  we 
cannot  deceive,  are  bringing  me  this  succour  1 

III.    THE  NIGHT  OF  EXILE 

When  steals  upon  me  the  gloomy  memory  of 
that  night  which  marked  my  latest  hours  in  the 

19 


OVID 

cum  repeto  noctem,  qua  tot  mihi  cara  reliqui, 

labitur  ex  oculis  nunc  quoque  gutta  meis. 
6  iam  prope  lux  aderat,  qua l  me  discedere  Caesar 

finibus  extremae  iusserat  Ausoniae. 
nee  spatium  nee  mens  fuerat  satis  apta  parandi  : 

torpuerant  longa  pectora  nostra  mora. 
non  mihi  servorum,  comites  non  cura  legendi, 
10      non  aptae  profugo  vestis  opisve  fuit. 

non  aliter  stupui,  quam  qui  lovis  ignibus  ictus 

vivit  et  est  vitae  nescius  ipse  suae. 
ut  tamen  hanc  animi  nubem  dolor  ipse  removit, 

et  tandem  sensus  convaltiere  mei, 
15  adloquor  extremum  maestos  abiturus  amicos, 

qui  modo  de  multis  unus  et  alter  erant. 
uxor  amans  flentem  flens  acrius  ipsa  tenebat, 

imbre  per  indignas  usque  cadente  genas. 
nata  procul  Libycis  aberat  diversa  sub  oris, 
20      nee  poterat  fati  certior  esse  mei. 

quocumque  aspiceres,  luctus  gemitusque  sonabant, 

formaque  non  taciti  funeris  intus  erat. 
femina  virque  meo,  pueri  quoque  funere  maerent, 

inque  domo  lacrimas  angulus  omnis  habet. 
25  si  licet  exemplis  in  parvis  2  grandibus  uti, 

haec  facies  Troiae,  cum  caperetur,  erat. 
iamque  quiescebant  voces  hominumque  canumque, 

Lunaque  nocturnos  alta  regebat  equos. 
hanc  ego  suspiciens  et  ad  hanc  3  Capitolia  cernens, 
30      quae  nostro  frustra  iuncta  fuere  Lari, 

"  numina  vicinis  habitantia  sedibus,"  inquam, 

"  iamque  oculis  numquam  templa  videnda  meis, 

1  qua]  cum  2  parvo  3  ab  hac 

20 


TRISTIA,  I.  in.  3-32 

city — when  I  recall  that  night  on  which  I  left  so 
many  things  dear  to  me,  even  now  from  my  eyes 
the  teardrops  fall. 

5  Already  the  morning  was  close  at  hand  on  whicli 
Caesar  had  bidden  me  to  depart  from  Ausonia's 
furthest  bounds.  No  time  had  there  been  or  spirit  to 
get  ready  what  might  suit  best  ;  my  heart  had  be- 
come numb  with  the  long  delay.  I  took  no  thought 
to  select  my  slaves  or  my  companions  or  the  clothing 
and  outfit  suited  to  an  exile.  I  was  as  dazed  as 
one  who,  smitten  by  the  fire  of  Jove,  still  lives  and 
knows  not  that  he  lives.  But  when  my  very  pain 
drove  away  the  cloud  upon  my  mind  and  at  length 
my  senses  revived,  I  addressed  for  the  last  time 
as  I  was  about  to  depart  my  sorrowing  friends  of 
whom,  just  now  so  many,  but  one  or  two  remained. 
My  loving  wife  was  in  my  arms  as  I  wept,  herself 
weeping  more  bitterly,  tears  raining  constantly 
over  her  innocent  cheeks.  My  daughter  was  far 
separated  from  us  on  the  shores  of  Libya,  and  we 
could  not  inform  her  of  my  fate.  Wherever  you  had 
looked  was  the  sound  of  mourning  and  lamentation, 
and  within  the  house  was  the  semblance  of  a  funeral 
with  its  loud  outcries.  Men  and  women,  children 
too,  grieved  at  this  funeral  of  mine  ;  in  my  home 
every  corner  had  its  tears.  If  one  may  use  in  a 
lowly  case  a  lofty  example,  such  was  the  appearance 
of  Troy  in  the  hour  of  her  capture. 

27  Now  the  voices  of  men  and  dogs  were  hushed 
and  the  moon  aloft  was  guiding  her  steeds  through 
the  night.  Gazing  up  at  her,  and  by  her  light  at 
the  Capitol,  which,  all  in  vain,  adjoined  my  home, 
I  prayed  :  "Ye  deities  that  dwell  near  by  and  ye 
temples  never  henceforth  to  be  seen  by  my  eyes, 

21 


OVID 

dique  relinquendi,  quos  urbs  habet  alta  Quirini, 

este  salutati  tempus  in  omne  mihi. 
35  et  quamquam  sero  clipeuni  post  vulnera  sumo, 

attamen  bane  odiis  exonerate  fugam, 
caelestique  viro,  quis  me  deceperit  error, 

dicite,  pro  culpa  ne  scelus  esse  putet, 
ut  quod  vos  seitis,  poenae  quoque  sentiat  auctor. 
40      placato  possum  non  miser  esse  deo." 

hac  prece  adoravi  superos  ego,  pluribus  uxor, 

singultu  medios  impediente  sonos. 
ilia  etiam  ante  Lares  '  passis  adstrata  capillis 

contigit  extinctos 2  ore  tremente  focos, 
45  multaque  in  adversos  effudit  verba  Penates 

pro  deplorato  non  valitura  viro. 
iamque  morae  spatium  nox  praccipitata  negabat, 

versaque  ab  axe  suo  Parrbasis  Arctos  erat. 
quid  faccrem  ?  blando  patriae  retinebar  amore, 
50      ultima  sed  iussae  nox  erat  ilia  fugae. 

a  !   quotiens  aliquo  dixi  properante  "  quid  urgues  ? 

vel  quo  festinas  ire,  vel  unde,  vide." 
a  !   quotiens  certam  me  sum  mentitus  habere 

horam,  propositae  quae  foret  apta  viae. 
55  ter  limen  tetigi,  ter  sum  revocatus,  et  ipse 

indulgens  animo  pes  mihi  tardus  erat. 
saepe  "  vale  "  dicto  rursus  sum  multa  locutus, 

et  quasi  discedens  oscula  summa  dedi. 
saepe  eadem  mandata  dedi  meque  ipse  fefelli, 
60      respiciens  oculis  pignora  cara  meis. 

1  Lares]  aras  2  extinctos]  aeternos 

1  i.e.  had  revolved  about  the  pole-star,  which  is  practicall 
the  axis  of  the  constellation,  cf.  2.  190;  iii.  2.  2. 


TRISTIA,  I.  in.  33-60 

ye  gods  of  this  lofty  city  of  Quirinus,  whom 
I  must  leave,  receive  from  me  this  my  saluta- 
tion for  all  time  !  And  although  too  late  I 
take  up  the  shield  when  wounded,  yet  disburden 
of  hatreds  this  banishment  of  mine  ;  tell  to  that 
man  divine  what  error  beguiled  me,  that  he  may  not 
think  a  fault  to  be  a  crime  and  that  what  you 
know  he  too,  the  author  of  my  punishment,  may 
feel.  If  the  god  be  appeased  I  cannot  be 
wretched." 

41  With  such  prayer  as  this  I  appealed  to  the  gods, 
my  wife  with  many  more,  the  sobs  interrupting  her 
cries  half  uttered.  She  even  cast  herself  with 
flowing  hair  before  the  Lares,  touching  the  cold 
hearth  with  quivering  lips  and  pouring  forth  to  the 
Penates  before  her  many  words  not  destined  to 
avail  the  spouse  she  mourned. 

47  Now  night  hurrying  to  her  close  refused  me 
time  for  lingering,  and  the  Parrhasian  bear  had 
wheeled  about  her  axis.1  What  was  I  to  do  ?  The 
enthralling  love  of  country  held  me,  yet  that  was 
the  last  night  before  the  exile  that  had  been  decreed. 
Alas  !  how  many  times  did  I  say,  as  somebody 
hastened  by,  "  Why  do  you  hurry  me  ?  Consider 
whither  you  are  hastening  or  whence  !  "  Alas  ! 
how  many  times  did  I  falsely  say  that  I  had  a  definite 
hour  suited  to  my  intended  journey.  Thrice  I 
touched  the  threshold,  thrice  did  something  call 
me  back,  and  my  very  feet  moved  slowly  to  gratify 
my  inclination.  Oft  when  I  had  said  farewell 
once  again  I  uttered  many  words,  and  as  if  I  were 
in  the  act  of  setting  forth  I  gave  the  final  kisses. 
Oft  I  gave  the  same  parting  directions,  thus  beguiling 
myself,  with  backward  look  at  the  objects  of  my 

23 


OVID 

denique  "  quid  propero  ?  Scythia  est,  quo  mittimur," 

inquam, 

"  Roma  relinquenda  est.     utraque  iusta  mora  est. 
uxor  in  aeternum  vivo  mihi  viva  negatur, 

et  domus  et  fidae  dulcia  membra  domus, 
65  quosque  ego  dilexi  fraterno  more  sodales, 

o  mihi  Thesea  pectora  iuncta  fide  ! 
dum  licet,  amplectar  :  numquam  fortasse  licebit 
amplius.     in  lucro  est  quae  datur  hora  mihi/' 
nee  mora,  sermonis  verba  inperfecta  relinquo, 
70      complectens  animo  proxima  quaeque  meo. 
dum  loquor  et  flemus,  caelo  nitidissimus  alto, 

Stella  gravis  nobis,  Lucifer  ortus  erat. 
dividor  haud  aliter,  quam  si  mea  membra  relinquam, 

et  pars  abrumpi  corpore  visa  suo  est. 
76  sic  doluit  Mettus1  tune  cum  in  contraria  versos 

ultores  habuit  proditionis  equos. 
turn  vero  exoritur  clamor  gemitusque  meorum, 

et  feriunt  maestae  pectora  nuda  manus. 
turn  vero  coniunx  umeris  abeuntis  inhaerens 
80      miscuit  haec  lacrimis  tristia  verba  meis  : 

"  non  potes  avelli.     simul  hinc,  simul  ibimus,"  inquit, 

"  te  sequar  et  coniunx  exulis  exul  ero. 
et  mihi  facta  via  est,  et  me  capit  ultima  tellus  : 

accedam  profugae  sarcina  parva  rati. 
85  te  iubet  e  patria  discedere  Caesaris  ira, 

me  pietas.     pietas  haec  mihi  Caesar  erit." 
talia  temptabat,  sicut  temptaverat  ante, 
vixque  dedit  victas  utilitate  manus. 

1  Priamus 

1  She  remained  in  Rome  to  work  for  the  poet's  recall. 
24 


TRISTIA,  I.  in.  61-88 

love.  At  last  I  said,  "  Why  hasten  ?  Tis  Scythia 
whither  I  am  going,  'tis  Rome  that  I  must  leave. 
Both  are  good  reasons  for  delay.  My  wife  lives  and 
1  live,  but  she  is  being  denied  me  forever  and  my 
home  and  the  sweet  inmates  of  that  faithful  home, 
and  the  comrades  I  have  loved  with  a  brother's 
love,  O  hearts  knit  to  me  with  Theseus'  faith ! 
Whilst  I  may  I  will  embrace  you.  Never  more 
perhaps  shall  I  have  the  chance.  The  hour  granted 
me  is  so  much  gain." 

69  No  longer  delaying  I  left  my  words  unfinished 
and  embraced  each  object  dearest  to  my  heart. 
During  my  talk  and  our  weeping,  bright  in  the 
lofty  sky  Lucifer  had  arisen,  to  me  a  baneful  star. 
I  was  torn  asunder  as  if  I  were  leaving  my  limbs 
behind — a  very  half  seemed  broken  from  the  body 
to  which  it  belonged.  Such  was  the  anguish  of 
Mettus  when  the  steeds  were  driven  apart,  punishing 
his  treachery.  Then  in  truth  arose  the  cries  and 
laments  of  my  people  ;  sorrowing  hands  beat  upon 
naked  breasts.  Then  in  truth  my  wife,  as  she  hung 
upon  my  breast  at  parting,  mingled  these  sad  words 
with  my  tears,  "  I  cannot  suffer  you  to  be  torn  away. 
Together,  together  we  will  go  ;  I  will  follow  you 
and  be  an  exile's  exiled  wife.  For  me  too  the 
journey  has  been  commanded,  for  me  too  there  is 
room  in  the  faraway  land.  My  entrance  will  add 
but  a  small  freight  to  your  exile  ship.  You  are 
commanded  to  flee  your  country  by  Caesar's  wrath, 
I  by  my  loyal  love.  This  love  shall  be  for  me  a 
Caesar." 

87  Such  was  her  attempt,  as  it  had  been  before, 
and  with  difficulty  did  she  surrender  her  resolve 
for  my  profit.1  I  set  forth— if  it  was  not  rather 

25 


OVID 

egredior,  sive  illud  erat  sine  funere  ferri, 
90      squalidus  inmissis  hirta  per  ora  comis. 
ilia  dolor e  amens  tenebris  narratur  obortis 

semianimis  media  procubuisse  dorno, 
utque  resurrexit  foedatis  pulvere  turpi 

crinibus  et  gelida  membra  levavit  humo, 
95  se  modo,  desertos  modo  complorasse  Penates, 

nomen  et  erepti  saepe  vocasse  viri, 
nee  gemuisse  minus,  quam  si  nataeque  meumque1 

vidisset  structos  corpus  habere  rogos, 
et  voluisse  mori,  moriendo  ponere  sensus, 
100      respectuque  tamen  non  periisse  mei. 

vivat,  et  absentem,  quoniam  sic  fata  tulerunt, 
vivat  ut 2  auxilio  sublevet  usque  suo. 

IV. 

Tinguitur  oceano  custos  Erymanthidos  ursae, 

aequoreasque  suo  sidere  turbat  aquas, 
nos  tamen  Ionium  non  nostra  findimus  aequor 

sponte,  sed  audaces  cogimur  esse  metu. 
5  me  miserum  !    quantis  increscunt  aequora  ventis, 

erutaque  ex  imis  fervet  harena  fretis  ! 
monte  nee  inferior  prorae  puppique  recurvae 

insilit  et  pictos  verberat  unda  deos. 
pinea  texta  sonant,  pulsi 3  stridore  rudentes, 
10      ingemit  et  nostris  ipsa  carina  malis. 
navita  confessus  gelidum  pallore  timorem, 

iam  sequitur  victus,  non  regit  arte  ratem. 
utque  parum  validus  non  proficientia  rector 

cervicis  rigidae  frena  remittit  equo, 

1  virique        2  et  corr.  Salmasius        *  pulsu  Rothmaler 

1  BoOtes. 

2  The  figures  painted  or  carved  on  the  stern. 
26 


TRISTIA,  I.  in.  89— iv.  14 

being  carried  forth  to  burial  without  a  funeral — 
unkempt,  my  hair  falling  over  my  unshaven  cheeks. 
She,  frenzied  by  grief,  was  overcome,  they  say,  by 
a  cloud  of  darkness,  and  fell  half  dead  in  the  midst 
of  our  home.  And  when  she  rose,  her  tresses  fouled 
with  unsightly  dust,  raising  her  body  from  the  cold 
ground,  she  lamented  now  her  deserted  self,  now 
the  deserted  Penates,  and  often  called  the  name  of 
her  ravished  husband,  groaning  as  if  she  had  seen 
the  bodies  of  her  daughter  and  myself  resting  on 
the  high-built  pyre  ;  she  wished  to  die,  in  death 
to  lay  aside  all  feeling,  yet  from  regard  for  me  she 
did  not  die.  May  she  live  !  and  when  I  am  far 
away — since  thus  the  fates  have  willed — so  live  as 
by  her  aid  to  bring  constant  relief. 


IV.    ON  THE  DEEP 

The  guardian1  of  the  Erymanthian  bear  dips  in 
ocean  and  with  his  setting  stars  makes  stormy  the 
waters  of  the  sea.  Yet  I  am  cleaving  the  Ionian 
waves  not  of  my  own  will  but  forced  to  boldness 
through  fear.  Wretched  me  !  what  mighty  winds 
swell  the  waters,  casting  up  the  seething  sand  from 
the  lowest  depths  !  Mountain-high  upon  prow  and 
out-curving  stern  leaps  the  billow  lashing  the  painted 
gods.2  The  pine-wrought  fabric  resounds,  and  the 
ropes,  whipped  by  the  shrieking  wind,  and  the  very 
keel  groans  over  my  woes.  The  sailor  confessing 
by  his  pale  face  a  chilling  fear  now  in  defeat  humours 
the  craft,  no  longer  skilfully  guiding  her.  As  a 
rider  who  is  not  strong  enough  lets  the  ineffective 
reins  fall  loose  upon  the  stubborn  neck  of  his  horse, 

27 


OVID 

15  sic  non  quo  voluit,  sed  quo  rapit  impetus  undae, 

aurigam  video  vela  dedisse  rati. 
quod  nisi  mutatas  emiserit  Aeolus  auras, 

in  loca  iam  nobis  non  adeunda  ferar. 
nam  procul  Illyriis  laeva  de  parte  relictis 
20      interdicta  mihi  cernitur  Italia. 

desinat  in  vetitas  quaeso  contendere  terras, 

et  mecum  magno  pareat  aura  deo. 
dum  loquor,  et  timeo  pariter  cupioque 1  repelli, 

increpuit  quantis  viribus  unda  latus  ! 
25  parcite  caerulei,  vos  parcite  numina  ponti, 

infestumque  mihi  sit  satis  esse  lovem. 

vos  animam  saevae  fessam  subducite  morti, 

si  modo,  qui  periit,  non  periisse  potest. 

V. 

O  mihi  post  nullos  umquam  2  memorande  sodales, 

et  cui  praecipue  sors  mea  visa  sua  est, 
attonitum  qui  me,  memini,  carissime,  primus 

ausus  es  adloquio  sustinuisse  tuo, 
5  qui  mihi  consilium  vivendi  mite  dedisti, 

cum  foret  in  misero  pectore  mortis  amor, 
scis  bene,  cui  dicam,  positis  pro  nomine  signis, 

officium  nee  te  fallit,  amice,  tuum. 
haec  mihi  semper  erunt  imis  infixa  medullis, 
10      perpetuusque  animae  debitor  huius  ero, 
spiritus  et  vacuas  prius  hie  tenuandus  in  auras 

ibit,  et  in  tepido  deseret  ossa  rogo, 

1  timeo  cupio  nimiumque  vel  cupio  pariter  timeoque 
2  ullos  numquam 

28 


TRISTIA,  I.  iv.  15— v.  12 

so  not  where  he  wishes  but  where  the  billow's  power 
carries  him  our  charioteer,  I  see,  has  given  the  ship 
her  head.  And  unless  Aeolus  changes  the  winds 
he  sends  forth,  I  shall  be  driven  to  a  region  that  I 
must  not  now  approach,  for  Illyria's  shores  are  far 
behind  on  the  left  and  forbidden  Italy  is  beginning 
to  appear.  I  pray  the  wind  may  cease  its  striving 
towards  a  forbidden  land  and  may  unite  with  me 
in  obedience  to  the  mighty  god.1  Whilst  I  speak, 
at  once  afraid  and  eager  to  be  driven  back, 
with  what  mighty  power  the  waves  have  set  her 
beam  to  creaking  !  Mercy,  ye  gods  of  the  dark 
sea,  mercy!  Let  it  suffice  that  Jupiter 1  is  angered 
against  me.  Save  ye  my  weary  life  from  cruel  death, 
if  only  'tis  possible  for  one  already  dead2  not  to 
die! 

V.   To  A  FAITHFUL  FRIEND 

You  who  shall  never  be  named  after  any  of  my 
comrades,  you  who  above  all  made  my  lot  your 
own,  who  were  the  first,  dearest  one,  I  remember, 
to  dare  to  support  me  with  words  of  comfort  after 
the  bolt  had  struck,  who  gave  me  the  gentle  counsel 
to  live  when  my  wretched  breast  was  filled  with  the 
love  of  death, — you  know  well  to  whom  I  am  speak- 
ing by  means  of  these  symbols  substituted  for  your 
name,  nor  are  you  unaware,  my  friend,  of  your  own 
service.  These  things  shall  ever  remain  fixed  in 
my  inmost  heart  and  I  will  be  an  everlasting  debtor 
for  this  life  of  mine,  my  spirit  shall  be  dispersed 
in  the  empty  air  leaving  my  bones  on  the  warm 

1  Augustus. 
2  Ovid  often  likens  his  exile  to  death. 

29 


OVID 

quam  subeant  animo  meritorum  oblivia  nostro, 

et  longa  pietas  excidat  ista  die. 
15  di  tibi  sint  faciles,  tibi  di l  nullius  egentem 

fortunam  praesterit  dissimilemque  meae. 
si  tamen  haec  navis  vento  ferretur  amico, 

ignoraretur  forsitan  ista  fides. 
Thesea  Pirithous  non  tarn  sensisset  amicum, 
20      si  non  infernas  vivus  adisset  aquas, 
ut  foret  exemplum  veri  Phoceus  amoris, 

fecerunt  furiae,  tristis  Oresta,  tuae. 
si  non  Euryalus  Rutulos  cecidisset  in  hostes, 

Hyrtacidae  Nisi  gloria  nulla  foret. 
25  scilicet  ut  fulvum  spectatur  in  ignibus  aurum, 

tempore  sic  duro  est  inspicienda  fides. 
dum  iuvat  et  vultu  ridet  Fortuna  sereno, 

indelibatas  cuncta  sequuntur  opes  : 
at  simul  intonuit,  fugiunt,  nee  noscitur  ulli, 
30      agminibus  comitum  qui  modo  cinctus  erat. 
atque  haec,  exemplis  quondam  collecta  priorurn, 

nunc  mihi  sunt  propriis  cognita  vera  rnalis. 
vix  duo  tresve  mihi  de  tot  superestis  amici ; 

cetera  Fortunae,  non  mea  turba  fuit. 
35  quo  magis,  o  pauci,  rebus  succurrite  laesis, 

et  date  naufragio  litora  tuta  meo, 
neve  metu  falso  nimium  trepidate,  timentes, 

hac  offendatur  ne  pietate  deus  ! 
saepe  fidem  adversis  etiam  laudavit  in  armis, 
40      inque  suis  amat  hanc  Caesar,  in  hoste  probat. 
causa  mea  est  melior,  qui  non  contraria  fovi 

arma,  sed  hanc  merui  simplicitate  fugam. 

1  et  opis  vel  sisui :  tibi  di  Ehwald 

1  Pyladea. 
2  On  the  causes  of  Ovid's  exile  see  Introd.  pp.  xviii  if. 

30 


TRISTIA,  I.  v.  13-42 

pyre  ere  forgetfulness  of  your  deserving  steals  into 
my  heart  and  that  loyalty  of  yours  falls  away  from 
it  through  length  of  time.  May  the  gods  be  gracious 
to  you  ;  to  you  may  the  gods  grant  a  lot  that  craves 
the  aid  of  no  one, — a  lot  unlike  mine. 

17  And  yet  if  this  bark  of  mine  were  being  borne 
on  by  a  friendly  breeze,  perchance  that  loyalty 
of  yours  would  be  unknown.  Theseus'  friendship 
would  not  have  been  so  keenly  felt  by  Pirithous  if 
he  had  not  gone  while  still  alive  to  the  waters  below. 
That  the  Phocean1  was  a  model  of  sincere  love 
was  due  to  thy  madness,  gloomy  Orestes.  If 
Euryalus  had  not  fallen  in  with  the  Rutulian  foe, 
Hyrtacian  Nisus  would  have  had  no  renown.  'Tis 
clear  that  as  tawny  gold  is  tested  in  the  flames  so 
loyalty  must  be  proved  in  times  of  stress.  While 
Fortune  aids  us  and  a  smile  is  upon  her  calm  face, 
all  things  follow  our  unimpaired  resources.  But  at 
the  first  rumble  of  the  thunder  they  flee,  and  nobody 
recognizes  him  who  but  now  was  encircled  with  troops 
of  comrades.  This,  which  once  I  inferred  from  the 
examples  of  former  men,  now  I  know  to  be  true 
from  my  own  woes.  Scarce  two  or  three  of  you, 
my  friends,  once  so  many,  remain  to  me  ;  the  rest 
were  Fortune's  following,  not  mine.  And  so,  few 
though  ye  are,  run  all  the  more  to  aid  my  injured 
state  and  provide  a  secure  shore  for  my  shipwreck. 
Tremble  not  over  much  with  false  fear  lest  this 
loyalty  give  offence  to  our  god.  Ofttimes  faith 
even  among  his  enemies  in  arms  has  been  praised 
by  Caesar  ;  when  it  exists  among  his  own,  he  loves 
it  ;  in  an  enemy  he  approves  it.  My  case  is  still 
more  favourable  since  I  did  not  nurse  strife  against 
him,  but  earned  this  exile  by  my  simplicity.2  Do  you, 

31 


OVID 

invigiles  igitur  nostris  pro  casibus,  oro, 

deminui  siqua  *  numinis  ira  potest. 
45  scire  meos  casus  siquis  desiderat  omnes, 

plus,  quam  quod  fieri  res  sinit,  ille  petit, 
tot  mala  sum  passus,  quot  in  aethere  sidera  lucent 

parvaque  quot  siccus  corpora  pulvis  habet ; 
multaque  credibili  tulimus  maiora  ratamque, 
60      quam  vis  acciderint,  non  habitura  fidem. 
pars  etiam  quaedam  mecum  moriatur  oportet, 

meque  velim  possit  dissimulante  tegi. 
si  vox  infragilis,  pectus  mihi  firmius  aere,2 

pluraque  cum  linguis  pluribus  ora  forent, 
65  non  tamen  idcirco  complecterer  omnia  verbis, 

materia  vires  exsuperante  meas. 
pro  duce  Neritio  docti  mala  nostra  poetae 

scribite  :   Neritio  nam  mala  plura  tuli. 
ille  brevi  spatio  multis  erravit  in  annis 
60      inter  Dulichias  Iliacasque  domos  : 
nos  freta  sideribus  totis  distantia  mensos 

sors  tulit3  in  Geticos  Sarmaticosque  sinus, 
ille  habuit  fidamque  manum  sociosque  fideles  : 

me  profugum  comites  deseruere  mei. 
65  ille  suam  laetus  patriam  victorque  petebat  : 

a  patria  fugi  victus  et  exul  ego. 
nee  mihi  Dulichium  domus  est  Ithaceve  Samosve, 

poena  quibus  non  est  grandis  abesse  locis, 
sed  quae  de  septem  totum  circumspicit  orbem 
70      montibus,  imperii  Roma  deumque  locus, 
illi  corpus  erat  durum  patiensque  laborum  : 

invalidae  vires  ingenuaeque  mihi. 
ille  erat  assidue  saevis  agitatus  in  armis  : 

adsuetus  studiis  mollibus  ipse  fui. 

1  q  nunc  L  2  heret  vel  esset  corr.  5" 

8  sors  tulit  r :  detulit 


TRISTIA,  I.  v.  43-74 

then,  watch  on  behalf  of  my  fortunes,  I  beg  of  you,  if 
in  any  way  the  wrath  of  the  deity  can  be  lessened. 

45  If  anyone  desires  to  know  all  my  fortunes  he 
seeks  more  than  the  circumstances  permit.  I  have 
endured  woes  as  many  as  the  stars  that  shine  in 
heaven,  or  the  grains  that  the  dry  dust  holds  ;  many 
have  I  borne  too  great  to  be  believed  and  not 
destined  to  find  credence,  although  they  have 
really  befallen  me.  A  part,  too,  might  well  perish 
with  me,  and  I  wish  that,  since  I  would  veil  them, 
they  might  be  hidden.  If  I  had  a  tireless  voice, 
lungs  stronger  than  brass,  and  many  mouths  with 
many  tongues,  not  even  so  could  I  embrace  them 
all  in  words,  for  the  theme  surpasses  my  strength. 
Ye  learned  poets,  write  of  my  evils  instead  of  the 
Neritian  hero's l  !  for  I  have  borne  more  than  the 
Neritian.  He  wandered  over  but  a  narrow  space  in 
many  years — between  the  homes  of  Dulichium  and 
Ilium  ;  I,  after  traversing  seas  whole  constellations 
apart,  have  been  carried  by  fate  to  the  bays  of  the 
Getae  and  Sarmatians.  He  had  a  faithful  band  of  true 
companions  ;  I  in  my  flight  have  been  abandoned 
by  my  comrades.  He  was  seeking  his  native  land 
in  joy  and  victory  ;  I  have  fled  mine,  vanquished 
and  an  exile.  My  home  is  not  Dulichium  or  Ithaca 
or  Samos,2  places  from  which  absence  is  no  great 
punishment,  but  Rome,  that  gazes  about  from  her 
seven  hills  upon  the  whole  world,— Rome,  the  place 
of  empire  and  the  gods.  He  had  a  frame  sturdy 
and  enduring  of  toil ;  I  have  but  the  frail  strength 
of  one  gently  nurtured.  He  had  been  constantly 
engaged  in  fierce  warfare  ;  I  have  been  used  to 

1  Odysseus,  so-called  from  Mount  Neritus  in  Ithaca. 
2  i.e.  Same,  an  isle  belonging  to  Odysseus. 

D  33 


OVID 

76  me  deus  oppressit,  nullo  mala  nostra  levante  : 

bellatrix  illi  diva  ferebat  opem. 
cumque  minor  love  sit  tumidis  qui  regnat  in  undis, 

ilium  Neptuni,  me  lovis  ira  premit. 
adde,  quod  illius  pars  maxima  ficta  labor um, 
80      ponitur  in  nostris  fabula  nulla  malis. 

denique  quaesitos  tetigit  tamen  ille  Penates, 

quaeque  diu  petiit,  contigit  arva  tamen  : 
at  mihi  perpetuo  patria  tellure  carendum  est, 

ni  fuerit  laesi  mollior  ira  dei. 


VI. 

Nee  tantum  Clario  est  Lyde  dilecta  poetae, 

nee  tantum  Coo l  Bittis  2  amata  suo  est, 
pectoribus  quantum  tu  nostris,  uxor,  inhaeres, 

digna  minus  misero,  non  meliore  viro. 
5  te  mea  supposita  veluti  trabe  fulta  ruina  est  : 

siquid  adhuc  ego  sum,  muneris  omne  tui  est. 
tu  facis,  ut  spolium  non  sim,  nee  nuder  ab  illis, 

naufragii  tabulas  qui  petiere  mei. 
utque  rapax  stimulante  fame  cupidusque  cruoris 
10      incustoditum  oaptat  ovile  lupus, 

aut  ut  edax  vultur  corpus  circumspicit  ecquod 

sub  nulla  positum  cernere  possit  humo, 
sic  mea  nescio  quis,  rebus  male  fid  us  acerbis 

in  bona  venturus,  si  paterere,  fuit. 
15  hunc  tua  per  fortis  virtus  summovit  amicos, 

nulla  quibus  reddi  gratia  digna  pot  est. 
ergo  quam  misero,  tarn  vero  teste  probaris, 
hie  ali quod  pondus  si  modo  testis  habet. 
1  Coo]  Clario  2  battis  corr.  Mfrkel 

1  Pallas  Athene  (Minerva). 
34 


TRISTIA,  I.  v.  75— vi.  18 

softer  pursuits,  I  was  crushed  by  a  god  and  nobody 
lightened  my  sorrows  ;  to  him  the  goddess  l  of  war 
brought  aid.  And  though  the  king  of  the  swelling 
waves  is  inferior  to  Jove,  he  was  oppressed  by 
Neptune's  wrath,  I  by  that  of  Jove.  Moreover,  the 
largest  part  of  his  labours  is  fiction  ;  in  my  woes  no 
myth  resides.  And  finally — he  reached  the  home 
of  his  quest,  attaining  the  fields  he  long  had  sought. 
But  I  must  be  forever  deprived  of  my  native  land, 
unless  the  wrath  of  the  injured  god  be  softened. 


VI.   To  His  WIFE 

Not  so  great  was  the  love  of  the  Clarian  bard  2 
for  Lyde  or  that  of  her  own  Coan  3  for  Bittis  as  the 
love  that  clings  in  my  heart  for  thee,  rny  wife, 
for  thee  wl)o  art  worthy  of  a  less  wretched,  not  a 
better,  husband.  Upon  thee  as  upon  a  supporting 
pillar  my  ruins  rest  ;  if  even  now  anything  of  me 
exists,  it  is  all  thy  gift.  Tis  thy  doing  that  I  am 
not  plundered  nor  stripped  bare  by  those  who  have 
attacked  the  timbers  of  my  wreckage.  As  the  wolf 
ravening  under  the  goad  of  hunger  and  eager  for 
blood  strives  to  catch  the  sheepfold  unguarded,  or 
as  the  hungry  vulture  peers  about  for  the  possible 
sight  of  some  unburied  corpse,  so  there  was  one, 
treacherous  in  my  bitter  fortune,  who,  hadst  thou 
suffered  it,  would  have  come  into  my  wealth.  Him 
thy  courage  has  repelled  with  the  aid  of  spirited 
friends  whom  I  can  never  thank  as  they  deserve. 
Thus  thou  art  approved  by  a  witness  as  sincere  as 
he  is  wretched, — if  only  such  a  witness  carries  any 
2  Antimachus.  8  Philetas. 

35 


OVID 

nee  probitate  tua  prior  est  aut  Hectoris  uxor, 
20      aut  comes  extincto  Laodamia  viro. 
tu  si  Maeonium  vatem  sortita  fuisses, 
Penelopes  esset  fa  ma  secunda  tuae  : 
sive  tibi  hoc  debes,  nullo1  pia  facta  magistro, 

cumque  nova  mores  sunt  tibi  luce  dati, 
25  femina  seu  princeps  omnes  tibi  culta  per  annos 

te  docet  exemplum  coniugis  esse  bonae, 
adsimilemque  sui  longa  adsuetudine  fecit, 

grandia  si  parvis  adsimulare  licet, 
ei  mihi,  non  magnas  quod  habent  mea  carmina  vires, 
30      nostraque  sunt  meritis  ora  minor  a  tuis  ! — 
siquid  et  in  nobis  vivi  fuit  ante  vigoris, 

extinctum  longis  occidit  omne  malis  ! — 
prima  locum  sanctas  heroidas  inter  haberes, 

prima  bonis  animi  conspicerere  tui. 
35  quantumcumque  tamen  praeconia  nostra  valebunt, 
carminibus  vives  tempus  in  omne  meis. 


VII. 

Siquis  habes  nostris  similes  in  imagine  vultus, 
deme  meis  hederas,  Bacchica  serta,  comis. 

ista  decent  laetos  felicia  signa  poetas  : 

temporibus  non  est  apta  corona  meis. 

5  hoc  tibi  dissimula,  senti  tamen,  optime,  dici, 

in  digito  qui  me  fersque  refersque  tuo, 

1  null! 

1  Andromache. 

2  Livia,  wife  of  Augustus,  is  here  called  princeps  femina, 
as  her  husband  was  called  princeps  (civitatis). 

8  Possibly  Brutus.     See  Introa.  p.  xv. 

4  The  first  four  lines  are  a  general  injunction  to  all  who 

36 


TRISTIA,  L  vi.  19— vn.  6 

weight.  In  uprightness  neither  Hector's  wife 1 
excels  thee,  nor  Laodamia,  companion  of  her  husband 
in  death.  If  fate  had  allotted  thee  the  Maeonian 
bard,  Penelope's  fame  would  be  second  to  thine, 
whether  thou  owest  this  to  thyself,  schooled  to 
loyalty  by  no  teacher,  and  such  character  was  given 
thee  with  life's  earliest  dawn,  or  whether  that  first 
of  women,2  reverenced  by  thee  through  all  the  years, 
teaches  thee  to  be  the  model  of  a  good  wife  and 
by  long  training  has  made  thee  like  herself— if  'tis 
lawful  to  liken  great  things  to  small.  Alas  that  great 
power  lies  not  in  my  song  and  my  lips  cannot  match 
thy  merits  ! — if  ever  in  former  times  I  had  aught  of 
quickening  vigour,  all  has  been  extinguished  by  my 
long  sorrows  ! — else  thou  wouldst  hold  first  place  amid 
the  revered  heroines,  first  wouldst  thou  be  looked 
upon  because  of  thy  qualities  of  heart.  Yet  so  far 
as  my  praise  has  power,  thou  shalt  live  for  all  time 
in  my  song. 


VII.   THE  METAMORPHOSES 

Whoever  you3  may  be  who  possess  a  portrait  of 
my  features,  remove  from  my  locks  the  ivy,  the 
chaplet  of  Bacchus.  Such  fortunate  symbols  are 
suited  to  happy  poets  ;  a  wreath  becomes  not  my 
temples.4  Hide  the  fact — yet  feel  it,  too, — that 
this  is  said  to  you,  my  best  of  friends,  who  carry 
me  about  on  your  finger,  and,  clasping  my  image 

possessed  likenesses  of  the  poet  such  as,  for  example, 
crowned  busts  (imagines)  which  were  a  common  ornament 
of  libraries.  Vv.  5  ff.  are  addressed  directly  to  the  recipient 
of  this  letter. 

37 


OVID 

effigiemque  meam  fulvo  complexus  in  auro 

cara  relegati,  quae  potes,  ora  vides. 
quae  quotiens  spectas,  subeat  tibi  dicere  forsan 
10      "  quam  procul  a  nobis  Naso  sodalis  abest  !  " 
grata  tua  est  pietas.     sed  carmina  maior  imago 

sunt  mea,  quae  mando  qualiacumque  legas, 
carmina  mutatas  hominum  dicentia  formas, 

infelix  domini  quod  fuga  rupit  opus. 
15  haec  ego  discedens,  sicut  bene  multa  meorum, 

ipse  mea  posui  maestus  in  igne  manu. 
utque  cremasse  suum  fertur  sub  stipite  natum 

Thestias  et  melior  matre  fuisse  soror, 
sic  ego  non  meritos  mecum  peritura  libellos 
20      imposui  rapidis  viscera  nostra  rogis  : 

vel  quod  eram  Musas,  ut  crimina  nostra,  perosus, 

vel  quod  adhuc  crescens  et  rude  carmen  erat. 
quae  quoniam  non  sunt  penitus  sublata,  sed  extant- 

pluribus  exemplis  scripta  fuisse  reor — 
25  nunc  precor  ut  vivant  et  non  ignava  legentem 

otia  delectent  admoneantque  mei. 
nee  tamen  ilia  legi  poterunt  patienter  ab  ullo, 

nesciet  his  summam  siquis  abesse  manum. 
ablatum  mediis  opus  est  incudibus  illud, 
30      defuit  et  scriptis  ultima  lima  meis. 

et  veniam  pro  laude  peto,  laudatus  abunde, 

non  fastiditus  si  tibi,  lector,  ero. 
hos  quoque  sex  versus,  in  prima l  fronte  libelli 

si  praeponendos  esse  putabis,  habe  : 
35  "  orba  parente  suo  quicumque  volumina  tangis, 
his  saltern  vestra  detur  in  urbe  locus. 
1  prima]  primi  Heinsius 

1  The  Metamorphoses.  2  Althaea.     See  Index. 

8  i.e.  Rome,  where  you  can  still  live. 

38 


TRISTIA,  I.  vii.  7-36 

on  the  tawny  gold,  see  the  dear  face — all  that  you 
can  see — of  an  exile.  Whenever  you  gaze  upon 
it,  you  may  perchance  feel  prompted  to  say,  "  How 
far  away  is  our  comrade  Naso  !  "  There  is  comfort 
in  your  love.  But  my  verses  are  a  more  striking 
portrait,  and  these  I  bid  you  read  however  poor 
they  are — the  verses  that  tell  of  the  changed  forms 
of  men,1  the  work  broken  off  by  the  unfortunate 
exile  of  their  master. 

15  These  verses  upon  my  departure,  like  so  much 
that  was  mine,  in  sorrow  I  placed  with  my  own 
hand  in  the  fire.  Just  as  Thestius'  daughter 2 
burned  her  own  son,  they  say,  in  burning  the  branch, 
and  proved  a  better  sister  than  mother,  so  1  placed 
the  innocent  books  consigned  with  me  to  death,  my 
very  vitals,  upon  the  devouring  pyre,  because  I 
had  come  to  hate  the  Muses  as  my  accusers  or 
because  the  poem  itself  was  as  yet  half  grown  and 
rough.  These  verses  were  not  utterly  destroyed  ; 
they  still  exist — several  copies  were  made,  I  think 
— and  now  I  pray  that  they  may  live,  that  thus  my 
industrious  leisure  may  bring  pleasure  to  the  reader 
and  remind  him  of  me.  And  yet  they  cannot  be 
read  in  patience  by  anybody  who  does  not  know 
that  they  lack  the  final  hand.  That  work  was 
taken  from  me  while  it  was  on  the  anvil  and  my 
writing  lacked  the  last  touch  of  the  file.  Indulgence, 
then,  instead  of  praise  I  ask  ;  I  shall  have  abundance 
of  praise  if  you  do  not  disdain  me,  reader.  Receive 
these  six  lines  also,  if  you  think  them  worthy  to  be 
placed  at  the  very  head  of  the  book : — 

35  "  All  you  who  touch  these  rolls  bereft  of  their 
father,  to  them  at  least  let  a  place  be  granted  in 
your  3  city  !  And  your  indulgence  will  be  all  the 

39 


OVID 

quoque  magis  faveas,  haec  non  sunt  edita  ab  ipso, 

sed  quasi  de  doinini  funere  rapta  sui. 
quicquid  in  his  igitur  vitii  rude  carmen  habebit, 
40      emendaturus,  si  licuisset,  eram." 


VIIL 

In  caput  alta  suum  labentur  ab  aequore  retro 

flumina,  conversis  Solque  recurret  equis  : 
terra  feret  Stellas,  caelum  findetur  aratro, 

unda  dabit  flammas,  et  dabit  ignis  aquas, 
5  omnia  naturae  praepostera  legibus  ibunt, 

parsque  suum  mundi  nulla  tenebit  iter, 
omnia  iam  fient,  fieri  quae  posse  negabam,1 

et  nihil  est,  de  quo  non  sit  habenda  fides, 
haec  ego  vaticinor,  quia  sum  deceptus  ab  illo, 
10      laturum  misero  quern  mihi  rebar  opem. 
tantane  te,  fallax,  cepere  oblivia  nostri, 

afflictumque  fuit  tantus  adire  timor, 
ut  neque  respiceres  nee  solarere  iacentem, 

dure,  nee  exequias  prosequerere  meas  ? 
16  illud  amicitiae  sanctum  et  venerabile  nomen 

re  tibi  pro  vili  sub  pedibusque  iacet  ? 
quid  fuit,  ingenti  prostratum  mole  sodalem 

visere  et  adloquiis  2  parte  levare  ttiis, 
inque  meos  si  non  lacrimam  demittere  casus, 
20      pauca  tamen  ficto  verba  dolore  pati,3 

idque,  quod  ignoti  faciunt,  vel  dicere  4  saltern, 

et  vocem  populi  publicaque  ora  sequi, — 
denique  lugubres  vultus  numquamque  videndos 

cernere  supremo  dum  licuitque  die, 

1  negabat  (negabant  s~)  vel  negabit 
2  alloquii  .  .  .  sui  (tui)  corr.  Ekwald 
8  loqui  *  vale  dicere  corr.  Merkel 

40 


TRISTIA,  I.  vii.  37— vin.  24 

greater  because  these  were  not  published  by  their 
master,  but  were  rescued  from  what  might  be 
called  his  funeral.  And  so  whatever  defect  this 
rough  poem  may  have  I  would  have  corrected,  had 
it  been  permitted  me." 

VIII.  To  A  TRAITOROUS  FRIEND 

To  their  sources  shall  deep  rivers  flow,  back 
from  the  sea,  and  the  sun,  wheeling  his  steeds, 
shall  hurry  backwards  ;  the  earth  shall  support  stars 
and  the  sky  shall  be  cloven  by  the  plough,  water 
shall  produce  flame  and  flame  water  ;  all  things 
shall  proceed  reversing  nature's  laws  and  no  part 
of  the  universe  shall  keep  its  path  ;  everything 
that  I  once  called  impossible  shall  now  take  place, 
and  there  is  nothing  that  one  ought  not  to  believe. 
All  this  I  prophesy  because  I  have  been  deceived 
by  that  man  who  I  thought  would  bring  aid  to  me 
in  my  wretchedness. 

11  Treacherous  one,  did  you  forget  me  so  utterly 
or  were  you  so  afraid  to  approach  me  in  my  mis- 
fortune that  you  did  not  regard  or  comfort  me  in  my 
downfall,  cruel  man,  or  become  one  of  my  funeral 
escort  ?  Does  the  sacred  and  revered  name  of 
friendship  lie,  a  cheap  thing,  beneath  your  feet  ? 
What  trouble  was  it  to  visit  a  comrade  overwhelmed 
by  a  mighty  disaster,  to  do  your  part  in  relieving 
him  with  words  of  comfort,  and  if  not  to  let  fall  a 
tear  at  my  misfortune,  yei  to  suffer  a  few  words  of 
feigned  sorrow  to  escape  you  and,  as  even  strangers 
do,  at  least  to  say  something,  to  copy  the  people's 
speech,  the  public  phrases — in  fine  to  look  upon 
my  sad  features  never  to  be  seen  again,  on  the  last 


OVID 

25  dicendumque  semel  toto  non  amplius  aevo 
accipere,  et  parili  reddere  voce  "  vale  "  ? 
at  fecere  alii  nullo  mihi  feeder e  iuncti, 

et  lacrimas  animi  signa  dedere  sui. 
quid,  nisi  convictu  causisque  valentibus  essem 
30     temporis  et  longi  iunctus  amore  tibi  ? 
quid,  nisi  tot  lusus  et  tot  mea  seria  nosses, 

tot  nossem  lusus  seriaque  ipse  tua  ? 
quid,  si  dumtaxat  Romae  mihi  cognitus  esses, 

ascitus  totiens  in  genus  omne  loci  ? 
35  cunctane  in  aequoreos  abierunt  irrita  ventos  ? 

cunctane  Lethaeis  mersa  feruntur  aquis  ? 
non  ego  te  genitum  placida  reor  urbe  Quirini, 
,    urbe  meo  quae  iam  non  adeunda  pede  est,1 
sed  scopulis,  Ponti  quos  haec  habet  or  a  sinistri, 
40      inque  feris  Scythiae  Sarmaticisque  iugis  : 
et  tua  sunt  silicis  circum  praecordia  venae, 

et  rigidum  ferri  semina  pectus  habet, 
quaeque  tibi  quondam  tenero  ducenda  palato 

plena  dedit  nutrix  ubera,  tigris  erat  : 
45  aut  mala  nostra  minus  quam  nunc  aliena  putares, 

duritiaeque  mihi  non  agerere  reus. 
sed  quoniam  accedit  fatalibus  hoc  quoque  damnis, 

ut  careant  numeris  tempora  prima  suis, 

effice,  peccati  ne  sim  memor  huius,  et  illo 

50      officium  laudem,  quo  queror,  ore  tuum. 

IX. 

Detur  inoffenso  vitae  tibi  fcangere  metam, 
qui  legislioc  nobis  non  inimicus  opus. 
1  pede  est]  mihi 

1  The  conjecture  that  this  friend  was  Carus  is  improbable. 
See  Introd.  p.  xv. 


TRISTIA,  I.  vm.  25— ix.  2 

Lay,  whilst  you  might,  and  to  hear  the  "  Farewell " 
lever  more  to  be  uttered  in  all  time  and  to  return  it 
;o  me  in  a  like  tone  ?  Others  did  this  who  were 
xrnnd  to  me  by  no  tie,  and  wept  in  token  of  their 
eeling.  What  if  in  our  common  life  there  were 
lot  strong  reasons  for  our  union,  and  in  our  long 
continued  love  ?  What  if  you  had  not  known  so 
many  of  my  gay  and  serious  moments,  and  I  so 
many  of  yours  ?  What  if  you  had  known  me  merely 
at  Rome — you  who  have  so  often  been  my  comrade 
in  all  sorts  of  places  ?  Have  all  these  things  been  in 
vain,  vanishing  into  the  winds  that  blow  over  the 
sea  ?  Are  they  all  carried  away,  drowned  in  Lethe's 
waters  ?  You  were  not  born,  I  think,  in  Quirmus* 
peaceful  city,  the  city  that  my  feet  must  enter 
nevermore,  but  of  the  crags  which  stand  upon  this 
coast  of  the  ill-omened  Pontus,  or  in  the  cruel 
mountains  of  Scythia  and  Sarmatia.  Your  heart 
also  is  girt  with  veins  of  flint,  and  seeds  of  iron  are 
implanted  in  your  unyielding  breast.  She  who  once 
nursed  you,  offering  full  udders  to  be  drained  by  your 
tender  throat,  was  a  tigress  ;  or  else  you  would  think 
my  woes  less  foreign  to  you  than  you  now  do,  nor 
would  you  stand  accused  by  me  of  hardheartedness. 
47  But  since  this  also  has  been  added  to  my  fated 
ills,  that  those  early  years  fall  short  of  consummation, 
see  to  it  that  I  forget  this  sin  and  praise  your  service 
with  the  same  lips  with  which  I  now  complain. 


IX.  To  A  STEADFAST  FRIEND  l 

Be  it  your  lot  to  reach  life's  goal  without  stumbling 
— you  who  read  this  work  of  mine  in  no  unfriendly 

43 


OVID 

atque  utinam  pro  te  possent  mea  vota  valere, 

quae  pro  me  duros  non  tetigere  deos  ! 
5  donee  eris  sospes,1  multos  numerabis  amicos  : 

tempora  si  fuerint  nubila,  solus  eris. 
aspicis,  ut  veniant  ad  Candida  tecta  columbae, 

accipiat  nullas  sordida  turris  aves. 
horrea  formicae  tendunt  ad  inania  numquam  : 
10      nullus  ad  amissas  ibit  amicus  opes. 

utque  comes  radios  per  solis  euntibus  umbra  est, 

cum  latet  hie  pressus  nubibus,  ilia  fugit, 
mobile  sic  sequitur  Fortunae  lumina  vulgus  : 

quae  simul  inducta  nocte  teguntur,  abit. 
16  haec  precor  ut  semper  possint  tibi  falsa  videri ; 

sunt  tamen  eventu  vera  fatenda  meo. 
dum  stetimus,  turbae  quantum  satis  esset,  habebat 

nota  quidem,  sed  non  ambitiosa  domus. 
at  simul  impulsa  est,  omnes  timuere  ruinam, 
20      cautaque  communi  terga  dedere  fugae. 

saeva  neque  admiror  metuunt  si  fulmina,  quorum 

ignibus  adflari  proxima  quaeque  solent. 
sed  tamen  in  duris  remanentem  rebus  amicum 

quamlibet 2  inviso  Caesar  in  hoste  probat, 
25  nee  solet  irasci — neque  enim  moderatior  alter — 

cum  quis  in  adversis,  siquid  amavit,  amat. 
de  comite  Argolici 3  postquarp  cognovit  Orestis, 

narratur  Py laden  ipse  probasse  Thoas. 
quae  fuit  Actoridae  cum  magno  semper  Achille, 
30      laudari  solita  est  Hectoris  ore  fides. 

quod  pius  ad  Manes  Theseus  comes  iret  amico, 

Tartareum  dicunt  indoluisse  deum. 

1  felix  2  qualibet  vel  quolibet  corr.  5" 

*  argolico  corr.  Heinsius 

44 


TRISTIA,  I.  ix.  3-32 

spirit.  Would  that  in  your  behalf  my  prayers  may 
prevail  which  in  my  own  did  not  affect  the  cruel  gods  ! 
So  long  as  you  are  secure  you  will  count  many 
friends  ;  if  your  life  becomes  clouded  you  will  be 
alone.  You  see  how  the  doves  come  to  a  white 
dwelling,  how  an  unclean  tower  harbours  no  birds. 
Ants  seek  a  granary,  but  an  empty  one  never  :  no 
friend  will  approach  when  wealth  is  lost.  As  a 
shadow  accompanies  those  who  pass  through  the 
rays  of  the  sun,  but  when  the  sun  is  hidden,  hemmed 
in  by  clouds,  the  shadow  vanishes,  so  the  fickle 
crowd  follows  the  light  of  good  fortune,  but,  when 
once  the  veil  of  darkness  covers  it,  the  crowd  is 
gone.  I  pray  this  may  always  seem  untrue  to  you, 
yet  from  my  fate  its  truth  must  be  admitted. 
Whilst  I  stood  upright,  my  house,  well  known 
indeed  but  courting  no  honours,  found  enough  to 
throng  it.  Yet,  as  soon  as  the  shock  came  all  men 
feared  its  fall  and  discreetly  turned  their  backs  in 
common  flight.  I  wonder  not  if  they  dread  the 
fierce  lightnings  whose  flames  are  wont  to  blast 
everything  nearby  ;  nevertheless  a  friend  who  is 
steadfast  in  times  of  stress  is  approved  by  Caesar 
in  the  case  of  an  enemy,  however  he  may  hate  him, 
and  he  is  not  wont  to  be  angry — for  no  other  shows 
greater  restraint— when  one  continues  in  adversity 
to  love  whatever  he  has  loved  before.  After  hearing 
the  tale  of  Argive  Orestes'  comrade,  even  Thoas, 
they  say,  approved  of  Pylades.  The  unwavering 
loyalty  of  Actor 's  grandson 1  for  mighty  Achilles 
was  wont  to  be  praised  by  Hector's  lips.  When 
loyal  Theseus  accompanied  his  friend  to  the  shades, 
they  say  the  god  2  of  Tartarus  was  grieved.  When 

1  Patroclus.  2  Pluto. 

45 


OVID 

Euryali  Nisique  fide  tibi,  Turne,  relata 

credibile  est  lacrimis  inmaduisse  genas 
35  est  etiam  miseris  pietas,  et  in  hoste  probatur. 

ei  mihi,  quam  paucos  haec  mea  dicta  mo  vent  ! 
is  status,  haec  rerum  nunc  est  fortuna  mearum, 

debeat  ut  lacrimis  nullus  adesse  modus, 
at  mea  sunt,  proprio  quamvis  maestissima  casu, 
40      pectora  processu  fa  eta  serena  tuo. 
hoc  eventurum  iam  turn,  carissirne,  vidi, 

ferret  adhuc  istam  l  cum  minus  aura  ratem. 
sive  aliquod  morum  seu  vitae  labe  carentis 
est  pretium,  nemo  pluris  emendus  erat  : 
45  sive  per  ingenuas  aliquis  caput  extulit  artes — 

quaelibet  eloquio  fit  bona  causa  tuo. 
his  ego  commotus  dixi  tibi  protinus  ipsi 

"  scaena  manet  dotes  grandis,  amice,  tuas/5 
haec  mihi  non  ovium  fibrae  tonitrusve  sinistri, 
50      linguave  servatae  pennave  dixit  avis  : 
augurium  ratio  est  et  coniectura  futuri  : 

hac  divinavi  notitiamque  tuli. 
quae  quoniam  vera  est,  tota  tibi  mente  mihique 

gratulor,  ingenium  non  latuisse  tuum. 
55  at  nostrum  tenebris  utinam  latuisset  in  imis  ! 

expediit  studio  lumen  abesse  meo. 
utque  tibi  prosunt  artes,  facunde,  severae, 

dissimiles  illis  sic  nocuere  mihi. 
vita  tamen  tibi  nota  mea  est.     scis  artibus  illis 
60      auctoris  mores  abstinuisse  sui  : 

scis  vetus  hoc  iuveni  lusum  mihi  carmen,  et  istos 
ut  non  laudandos,  sic  tamen  esse  iocos. 

1  ista 

1  The  Ars  amalorla. 
46 


TRISTIA,  I.  ix.  33-62 

they  told  you,  Turnus,  of  the  fidelity  of  Nisus  and 
Euryalus,  we  may  believe  that  your  cheeks  were 
moist  with  tears.  There  is  loyalty  even  for  the 
unfortunate  and  it  finds  approval  even  in  an  enemy. 
Ah  me  !  how  few  do  these  words  of  mine  affect ! 
Such  is  my  condition,  such  is  now  the  state  of  my 
affairs  that  there  should  be  no  measure  to  my  tears. 
Yet  my  heart,  in  the  depths  of  grief  from  its  own 
disaster,  has  been  calmed  by  your  advancement. 
This  I  saw  approaching,  dear  one,  as  early  as  the 
time  when  the  breeze  was  as  yet  bearing  onward 
that  bark  of  yours  less  swiftly.  If  there  is  a  reward 
for  character  or  for  a  life  without  blemish,  nobody 
was  more  highly  to  be  prized  ;  or  if  anyone  lias  by 
liberal  arts  achieved  prominence,  you  have  eloquence 
which  renders  every  cause  a  good  one.  Moved  by 
this  I  said  at  once  to  you,  "  A  mighty  stage  awaits 
thy  gifts."  This  was  told  me  by  no  sheep's  liver 
or  thunder  on  my  left  or  the  note  or  wing  of  a  bird 
I  had  observed  ;  it  is  an  augury  and  inference  of 
the  future  based  on  reason  :  by  this  I  made  my 
divination  and  gained  my  knowledge. 

63  Since  this  proves  true,  with  my  whole  heart  I 
congratulate  you  and  myself  that  your  ability  has 
not  been  obscured.  But  mine  !  would  it  had  been 
obscured  in  the  depths  of  darkness  !  It  had  been 
best  that  light  had  failed  my  pursuit.  And  just 
as  you  are  aided,  my  eloquent  friend,  by  serious 
arts,  so  arts  unlike  them  have  injured  me.  Yet 
my  life  is  well  known  to  you  ;  you  know  that 
with  those  arts  their  author's  character  had  no  con- 
nexion ;  you  know  that  this  poem l  was  written  long 
ago,  an  amusement  of  my  youth,  and  that  those 
jests,  though  not  deserving  praise,  were  still  mere 

47 


OVID 

ergo  ut  defend!  nullo  mea  posse  colore, 

sic  excusari  crimina  posse  puto. 
65  qua  potes,  excusa,  nee  amici  desere  causam  : 
qua  bene  coepisti,  sic  bene  semper  eas. 

X. 

Est  mihi  sitque,  precor,  flavae  tutela  Minervae, 

navis  et  a  picta  casside  nomen  habet. 
sive  opus  est  velis,  minimam  bene  currit  ad  auram, 

sive  opus  est  remo,  remige  carpit  iter. 
5  nee  comites  volucri  contenta  est  vincere  cursu, 

occupat  egressas  quamlibet  ante  1  rates, 
et  pariter  fluctus  fert  ac  salientia  2  longe 

aequora,  nee  saevis  victa  madescit  aquis. 
ilia,  Corinthiacis  primum  mihi  cognita  Cenchreis, 
10      fida  manet  trepidae  duxque  comesque  fugae, 
perque  tot  eventus  et  iniquis  concita  ventis 

aequora  Palladio  numine  tuta  fuit. 
nunc  quoque  tuta,  precor,  vasti  secet  ostia  Ponti, 

quasque  petit,  Getici  litoris  intret  aquas. 
15  quae  simul  Aeoliae  mare  me  deduxit  in  Helles, 

et  longum  tenui  Hmite  fecit  iter, 
fleximus  in  laevum  cursus,  et  ab  Hectoris  urbe 

venimus  ad  portus,  Imbria  terra,  tuos. 

1  qualibet  arte  corr.  <T 
2  ferit  (fert)  atque  silentia  vel  assilientia  corr.  Vogel 


1  The  stern  of  Ovid's  ship  was  apparently  adorned  with  a 
figure  of  Minerva  clad  in  armour.     Such  a  figure  was  called 
a  tutela,  **  protecting  emblem." 

2  Ovid  reached  Corinth  by  way  of  the  Adriatic  and  the 
Corinthian   Gulf.     He  crossed  the   Isthmus   and   boarded 
this  ship  at  Cenchreae  whence  he  continued  his  voyage  to 
Samothrace.     There  he  left  the  ship  (which  continued  to 

48 


TRISTIA,  I.  ix.  63— x.  18 

jests.  So  then  although  my  crimes  can  be  de- 
fended by  no  plea  however  brilliant,  yet  an  excuse 
can  be  made  for  them,  I  think.  As  far  as  you  can, 
make  that  excuse  ;  do  not  abandon  the  cause  of  a 
friend.  On  this  condition  may  you  ever  travel 
happily  along  the  road  upon  which  you  have  happily 
set  out. 


X.  THE  EXILE'S  JOURNEY 

I  have,  and  pray  that  I  may  always  have,  the 
protection  of  golden-haired  Minerva,  and  my  bark 
draws  her  name  from  an  emblazoned  1  helmet.  If 
sails  be  needed,  she  runs  well  at  the  touch  of  the 
lightest  breeze,  or  if  oars,  the  rowers  speed  her  on 
her  way.  She  is  not  content  to  outstrip  in  winged 
course  her  companions  :  she  overhauls  the  craft 
that  set  out  no  matter  how  long  before  ;  alike  she 
bears  the  currents  and  the  far-leaping  billows  ;  she 
is  no  leaky  craft  overwhelmed  by  the  raging  seas. 
Her  I  knew  first  at  Corinthian  Cenchreae  2  and  she 
remained  the  faithful  guide  and  comrade  of  my 
anxious  flight,  safe  through  the  power  of  Pallas 
amid  so  many  fortunes,  amid  waves  roused  by  the 
cruel  gales.  Now  too  I  pray  she  may  safely  cut 
her  path  through  the  gates  of  the  wide  Pontus  and 
reach  the  waters  of  her  goal  by  the  Getic  shore. 

16  As  soon  as  she  brought  me  to  the  sea  of  Aeolian 
Helle,3  cleaving  her  long  journey  with  slender 
furrow,  I  turned  my  course  to  the  left,  away  from 
Hector's  city,  and  came  to  thy  port,  land  of  Imbros, 

Tomis,  w.  24-42)  and  took  another  for  Tempvra,  near  the 
Thracian  coast,  whence  he  passed  by  land  to  1  omis. 
8  The  Hellespont. 

E  49 


OVID 

inde,  levi  vento  Zerynthia  litora  nacta, 
20      Threlciam  tetigit  fessa  carina  Samon. 

saltus  ab  hac  contra  brevis  est  Tempyra  petenti  : 

hac  dominum  tenus  est  ilia  secuta  suum. 
nam  mihi  Bistonios  placuit  pede  carpere  campos  : 

Hellespontiacas  ilia  relegit l  aquas 
25  Dardaniamque  petit,  auctoris  nomen  habentem, 

et  te  ruricola,  Lampsace,  tut  a  deo, 
quodque  per  angustas  vectae  male  virginis  undas 

Seston  Abydena  separat  urbe  fretum, 
inque  Propontiacis  haerentem  Cyzicon  oris, 
30      Cyzicon,  Haemoniae  nobile  gentis  opus, 
quaeque  tenent  Ponti  Byzantia  litora  fauces  : 

hie  locus  est  gemini  ianua  vasta  maris. 
haec,  precor,  evincat,  propulsaque  fortibus  Austris 

transeat  instabilis  strenua  Cyaneas 
35  Thyniacosque  sinus,  et  ab  his  per  Apollinis  urbem 

arta  2  sub  Anchiali  moenia  tendat  iter. 
inde  Mesembriacos  portus  et  Odeson  et  arces 

praetereat  dictas  nomine,  Bacche,  tuo, 
et  quos  Alcathoi  memorant  e  moenibus  ortos 
40      sedibus  his  profugos  constituisse  Larem. 
a  quibus  adveniat  Miletida  sospes  ad  urbem, 

offensi  quo  me  detulit  ira  dei. 
haec  si  contigerint,  meritae  cadet  agna  Minervae  : 
non  facit  ad  nostras  hostia  maior  opes. 

1  reliquit :    relegit  S~ 
2  apta  vel  alta  vel  vecta  :  arta  5" 

1  Samothrace,  on  the  north  side  of  which  was  the  Zeryn- 
thian  cave  of  Hecate.  2  Priapus.  3  Helle. 

4  Founded  by  the  Argonaut  Aeneus,  from   Haemonia 
(Thessaly). 

6  The  famous  Symplegades,  at  the  entrance  to  the  Pontus, 
rocks  which  clashed  together  upon  ships  which  ventured 
between  them ;  see  v.  4t  and  Index. 
50 


TRIST1A,  I.  x. 

whence  reaching  the  Zerynthian  shore  with  a  light 
breeze  my  wearied  keel  touched  the  Thracian 
Samos.1  From  here  'tis  but  a  short  leap  for  one 
who  seeks  Tempyra  on  the  opposite  coast :  thus 
far  only  did  my  bark  attend  her  master.  For  it 
was  my  resolve  to  pick  my  way  on  foot  through  the 
Bistonian  land ;  she  coasted  back  through  the 
waters  of  the  Hellespont  seeking  Dardania,  bearing 
the  name  of  its  founder,  and  thee,  Lampsacus, 
secure  through  the  protection  of  the  country-loving 
god,2  and  the  strait  of  that  maiden  3  all  too  insecurely 
carried  through  the  narrow  waters — the  strait  that 
separates  Sestos  from  Abydos'  town — and  Cyzicos 
clinging  to  the  shores  of  Propontis,  Cyzicos,  the 
famed  work  of  the  Haemonian  race,4  and  Byzantium's 
shores,  that  hold  the  entrance  to  the  Pontus,  the 
huge  doorway  of  twin  seas.  Through  all  these  may 
she  win  her  way,  and  driven  by  the  sturdy  breeze  may 
she  have  power  to  pass  the  shifting  Cyaneae,5  and 
the  Thynian  bay,  and  after  may  she  hold  her  course 
past  Apollo's  city  6  and  close  beneath  the  narrow 
walls  of  Anchialus.  Thence  may  she  pass  the  port  of 
Mesembria  and  Odesos,  and  the  citadel 7  called  after 
thy  name,  Bacchus,  and  those  exiles  from  Alcathous' 
walls,  who,  so  'tis  said,  placed  on  this  site  their 
home.  From  their  land  may  she  come  in  safety 
to  the  Milesian  city  8  whither  the  wrath  of  an  angered 
god  has  dispatched  me. 

43  If  this  but  happen,  a  lamb  shall  fall  in  sacrifice 
to  deserving  Minerva  ;    a  larger  victim  ill  becomes 

6  Apollonia,  on  the  west  coast  of  the  Pontus,  where  lay 
also  the  other  towns  mentioned  in  vv.  35-40. 

7  Probably  Dionysopolis.     The  town  of  Alcathous  was 
Bizone. 

8  Tomis,  a  colony  of  Miletus,  cf.  TV.  iii.  9. 

51 


OVID 

45  vos  quoque,  Tyndaridae,  quos  haec  colit  insula,  fratres, 

mite  precor  duplici  numen  adesse l  viae  ! 
altera  namque  parat  Symplegadas  ire  per  artas, 

scindere  Bistonias  altera  puppis  aquas, 
vos  facite  ut  ventos,  loca  cum  di versa  petamus, 
50      ilia  suos  habeat,  nee  minus  ilia  suos. 


XL 

Littera  quaecumque  est  toto  tibi  lecta  libello, 

est  mini  sollicito  tempore  facta  viae. 
aut  haec  me,  gelido  tremerem  cum  mense  Decembri, 

scribentem  mediis  Hadria  vidit  aquis  ; 
5  aut,  postquam  bimarem  cursu  superavimus  Isthmon, 

alteraque  est  nostrae  sumpta  carina  fugae, 
quod  facerem  versus  inter  fera  murmura  ponti, 

Cycladas  Aegaeas  obstipuisse  puto. 
ipse  ego  nunc  2  miror  tantis  animique  marisque 
10      fluctibus  ingenium  non  cecidisse  meum. 
seu  stupor  huic  studio  sive  est  insania  nomen, 

omnis  ab  hac  cura  cura  levata  3  mea  est. 
saepe  ego  nimbosis  dubius  iactabar  ab  Haedis, 

saepe  minax  Steropes  sidere  pontus  erat, 
15  fuscabatque  diem  custos  Atlantidos  Ursae, 

aut  Hyadas  seris  hauserat  Auster  aquis, 
saepe  maris  pars  intus  erat ;  tamen  ipse  trementi 

carmina  ducebam  qualiacumque  manu. 

1  adeste  2  ego  nunc]  etenim 

8  cura  levata]  mens  relevata 

1  Castor  and  Pollux,  worshipped  by  sailors.     Ovid  writes 
in  Samothrace. 

2  Ovid  means  that  he  wrote  mechanically  as  one  dazed 
(stupor).  8  Bootes. 

4  Ovid  seems  to  mean  that  rainy  Auster  combined  with  the 

52 


TRISTIA,  I.  x.  45— XL  18 

my  poor  resources.  Ye  too,  brother  Tyndaridae,1 
whom  this  isle  worships,  attend  in  propitious  power 
our  twofold  way  ;  for  one  craft  makes  ready  to 
pass  through  the  narrow  Symplegadae,  the  other 
to  plough  Bistonia's  waters.  Make  ye  the  winds, 
though  different  the  places  we  seek,  favour  the  one 
and  no  less  favour  the  other  ! 


XL  EPILOGUE 

Every  letter  that  you  have  read  in  my  whole 
book  was  formed  by  me  during  the  troubled  days 
of  my  journey.  Either  the  Adriatic  saw  me  writing 
these  words  in  the  midst  of  his  waters,  while  I 
shivered  in  cold  December,  or  when  I  had  passed 
in  my  course  the  Isthmus  with  its  two  seas  and  had 
taken  the  second  ship  of  my  journey  into  exile,  my 
writing  of  verses  amid  the  wild  roar  of  the  sea 
brought  wonder,  I  think,  to  the  Aegean  Cyclades. 
I  myself  now  marvel  that  amid  such  turmoil  of  my 
soul  and  of  the  sea  my  powers  did  not  fail.  But 
whether  "  trance  "  2  or  "  madness  "  be  the  name  for 
this  pursuit,  'twas  by  such  pains  that  all  my  pain 
was  lightened.  Often  my  perilous  tossing  was 
caused  by  the  storm-bringing  Kids,  often  the  con- 
stellation of  Sterope  made  the  sea  to  threaten,  or 
the  day  was  darkened  by  the  guardian 3  of  the 
Atlantian  bear,  or  Auster  had  drawn  from  the 
Hyades  an  autumnal  flood.4  Often  part  of  the  sea 
was  within  our  ship  ;  nevertheless,  with  shaking  hand 
I  continued  to  spin  my  verses  such  as  they  were. 

setting  Hyades  (in  November,  a  time  of  rain)  to  produce  a 
down  pour. 

53 


OVID 

nunc  quoque  content!  stridunt  Aquilone  rudentes, 
20     inque  modum  tumuli  concava  surgit  aqua, 
ipse  gubernator  tollens  ad  sidera  palmas 

exposcit  votis,  inmemor  artis,  opem. 
quocumque  aspexi,  nihil  est  nisi  mortis  imago, 

quanx  dubia  timeo  mente  timensque  precor. 
25  attigero  portum,  portu  terrebor  ab  ipso  : 

plus  habet  infesta  terra  timoris  aqua, 
nam  simul  insidiis  hominum  pelagique  laboro, 

et  faciunt  geminos  ensis  et  unda  metus. 
ille  meo  vereor  ne  speret  sanguine  praedam, 
30      haec  titulum  nostrae  mortis  habere  velit. 

barbara  pars  laeva  est  avidaeque  adsueta  rapinae,1 

quam  cruor  et  caedes  bellaque  semper  habent, 
cumque  sit  hibernis  agitatum  fluctibus  aequor, 

pectora  sunt  ipso  turbidiora  mari. 
35  quo  magis  his  debes  ignoscere,  candide  lector, 

si  spe  sunt,  ut  sunt,  inferiora  tua. 
non  haec  in  nostris,  ut  quondam,  scripsimus  2  hortis, 

nee,  consuete,  meum,  lectule,  corpus  habes. 
iactor  in  indomito  brumali  luce  profundo 
40      ipsaque  caeruleis  charta  feritur  aquis. 

improba  pugnat  hiems  indignaturque  quod  ausim 

scribere  se  rigidas  incutiente  minas. 
vincat  hiems  hominem  !  sed  eodem  tempore,  quaeso, 

ipse  modum  statuam  carminis,  ilia  sui. 

1  ad  ethera  penne  vel  substrata  (substracta  vel  subtracta 
etc.)  rapinae  :  adsueta  rapinae  Haupt 

2  scribimus 


54 


TRISTIA,  I.  xi.  19-44 

Now  too  the  ropes  drawn  taut  by  Aquilo  are 
shrieking,  and  like  a  hill  swells  the  curving  surge. 
The  very  helmsman  lifts  his  hands  to  the  stars 
imploring  aid  with  prayer  and  forgetful  of  his  skill. 
Wherever  I  gaze  there  is  naught  but  the  presentment 
of  death  that  with  wavering  mind  I  fear  and  pray 
for  in  my  fear.  Should  I  reach  the  harbour,  the 
very  harbour  will  affright  me  :  there  is  more  to 
dread  upon  the  land  than  on  the  hostile  sea.  For 
the  snares  of  men  and  of  the  sea  unite  in  causing 
my  woe  ;  the  sword  and  the  waves  produce  twin 
fears.  The  one  may  look  for  booty  through  my 
blood,  I  fear,  whilst  the  other  may  wish  to  win 
renown  from  my  death.  Wild  is  the  shore  on  my 
left,  accustomed  to  the  greed  of  robbers,  ever  filled 
with  bloodshed  and  murder  and  war,  and  though  the 
sea  is  shaken  by  stormy  billows  my  breast  is  more 
turbulent  than  the  sea. 

36  And  so,  kindly  reader,  you  should  grant  me 
the  more  indulgence  if  these  verses  are — as  they 
are  —  poorer  than  your  hopes.  They  were  not 
written,  as  of  old,  in  my  garden  or  while  you,  my 
familiar  couch,  supported  my  frame.  I  am  tossing 
of  a  winter's  day  on  the  stormy  deep,  and  my  paper 
is  sprayed  by  the  dark  waters.  The  vicious  storm 
battles,  indignant  that  I  dare  to  write  whilst  he  is 
brandishing  against  me  his  stern  threats.  Let  the 
storm  vanquish  the  man  ;  but  at  the  same  time 
that  I  end  my  verse,  let  him,  I  pray,  reach  his 
own  end. 


55 


LIBER  SECUNDUS 

Quid  mihi  vobiscum  est,  infelix  cura,  libelli, 

ingenio  peril  qui  miser  ipse  meo  ? 
cur  modo  damnatas  repeto,  mea  crimina,  Musas  ? 

an  semel  est  poenam  commeruisse  parum  ? 
5  carmina  fecerunt,  ut  me  cognoscere  vellet 

omine  non  fausto  femina  virque  meo  : 
carmina  fecerunt,  ut  me  moresque  notaret 

iam  demi  iussa l  Caesar  ab  Arte  mea. 
deme  mihi  studium,  vitae  quoque  crirnina  demes  ; 
10      acceptum  refero  versibus  esse  nocens, 
hoc  pretium  curae  vigilatorumque  laborum 
cepimus  :  ingenio  est  poena  reperta  meo. 
si  saperem,  doctas  odissem  iure  sorores, 

minima  cultori  perniciosa  suo. 
15  at  nunc — tanta  meo  comes  est  insania  morbo — 

saxa  malum  refero  rursus  ad  ista 2  pedem  : 
scilicet  ut  victus  repetit  gladiator  harenam, 

et  redit  in  tumidas  naufraga  puppis  aquas, 
forsitan  ut  quondam  Teuthrantia  regna  tenenti, 
20      sic  mihi  res  eadem  vulnus  opemque  feret, 

Musaque,  quam  movit,  motam  quoque  leniet  iram  ; 
exorant  magnos  carmina  saepe  deos. 

1  demum  visa  2  icta  :  ista  S" 

1  The  Ars  amatoria,  which  had  been  removed  from  the 
public  libraries.     But  the  text  is  not  certain. 

2  The  Muses.  8  Telephus.    See  Index. 
56 


BOOK  II 
THE  POET'S  PLEA 

What  have  I  to  do  with  you,  ye  books,  ill- 
starred  object  of  my  toil, — I,  ruined  and  wretched 
through  my  own  talent  ?  Why  do  I  seek  once 
again  the  Muses  so  recently  condemned,  the  causes 
of  my  guilt  ?  Or  is  one  well-earned  penalty  not 
enough  ?  Verse  gave  men  and  women  a  desire  to 
know  me,  but  'twas  no  good  omen  for  me ;  verse  caused 
Caesar  to  brand  me  and  my  ways  by  commanding 
that  my  "  Art  J>1  be  forthwith  taken  away.  Take 
away  from  me  my  pursuit  and  you  will  take  away 
from  my  life  also  the  charges  against  it.  I  lay  the 
charge  of  guilt  against  my  verse.  This  is  the  reward 
I  have  received  for  my  work  and  my  wakeful  toil  :  a 
penalty  has  been  found  for  my  talent.  Were  I  wise  I 
should  justly  hate  the  learned  sisters,2  the  deities  fatal 
to  their  own  votary.  But  as  it  is — such  madness 
accompanies  my  disease — I  am  once  more  bending 
my  unfortunate  steps  to  those  crags,  just  as  the 
vanquished  gladiator  seeks  again  the  arena  or  the 
battered  ship  returns  to  the  surging  sea. 

19  Perchance,  as  once  for  him  who  ruled  the 
Teuthrantian  kingdom,3  the  same  object  will  both 
wound  and  cure  me,  and  the  Muse  who  aroused 
the  wrath  will  also  soften  it ;  song  often  prevails 

57 


OVID 

ipse  quoque  Ausonias  Caesar  matresque  nurusque 

carmina  turrigerae  dicere  iussit  Opi. 
25  iusserat  et  Phoebo  dici,  quo  tempore  ludos 

fecit,  quos  aetas  aspicit  una  semel. 
his  precor  exemplis  tua  nunc,  mitissime  Caesar, 

fiat  ab  ingenio  mollior  ira  meo. 
ilia  quidem  iusta  est,  nee  me  meruisse  negabo — 
30      non  adeo  nostro  fugit  ab  ore  pudor — 

sed  nisi  peccassem,  quid  tu  concedere  posses  ? 

materiam  veniae  sors  tibi  nostra  dedit. 
si,  quotiens  peccant  homines,  sua  fulmina  mittat 

luppiter,  exiguo  tempore  inermis  erit ; 
35  nunc  ubi  detonuit  strepituque  exterruit  orbem, 

purum  discussis  aera  reddit  aquis. 
iure  igitur  genitorque  deum  rectorque  vocatur, 

iure  capax  mundus  nil  love  maius  habet. 
tu  quoque,  cum  patriae  rector  dicare  paterque, 
40      utere  more  dei  nomen  habentis  idem. 

idque  facis,  nee  te  qiiisquam  moderatius  umquam 

imperil  potuit  frena  tenere  sui. 
tu  veniam  parti  superatae  saepe  dedisti, 

non  concessurus  quam  tibi  victor  erat. 
45  divitiis  etiam  multos  et  honoribus  auctos 

vidi,  qui  tulerant  in  caput  arma  tuum  ; 
quaeque  dies  bellum,  belli  tibi  sustulit  iram, 

parsque  simul  templis  utraque  dona  tulit ; 
utque  tuus  gaudet  miles,  quod  vicerit  hostem, 
50      sic  victum  cur  se  gaudeat,  hostis  habet. 
causa  mea  est  melibr,  qui  nee  contraria  dicor 

arma  nee  hostiles  esse  secutus  opes. 

1  The  Secular  Games.     See  Index.  2  Augustus. 

58 


TRISTIA,  II.  23-52 

on  the  mighty  gods.  Caesar  himself  bade  the 
mothers  and  daughters  of  Ausonia  chant  a  hymn 
to  turret-bearing  Ops.  He  commanded  a  hymn  to 
Phoebus  also  when  he  celebrated  those  games1 
which  each  age  views  but  once.  Such  precedents 
now  form  the  basis  of  my  prayer,  O  merciful  Caesar, 
that  my  poetic  gift  may  assuage  thy  wrath.  Just 
indeed  it  is— I  will  not  deny  that  I  have  deserved  it, 
for  shame  has  not  so  utterly  fled  my  lips,  But  had  I 
not  sinned,  what  leniency  were  it  possible  for  thee 
to  display  ?  My  fate  has  given  thee  the  means  of 
mercy.  If  at  every  human  error  Jupiter  should 
hurl  his  thunderbolts,  he  would  in  a  brief  space  be 
weaponless.  But  as  it  is,  when  the  roll  of  his  thunder 
has  died  away,  affrighting  the  world  with  its  roar, 
he  scatters  the  rain-clouds  and  clears  the  air.  Just 
it  is,  then,  to  call  him  the  father  and  ruler  of  the 
gods,  just  it  is  that  in  the  spacious  universe  there 
is  naught  mightier  than  Jove.  Do  thou 2  also, 
seeing  thou  art  called  ruler  and  father  of  our  native 
land,  follow  the  way  of  the  god  who  has  the  same 
title.  And  that  thou  dost ;  no  one  has  ever  been 
able  to  hold  the  reins  of  his  power  with  more  re- 
straint. Thou  hast  often  granted  indulgence  to  a 
conquered  foe  which  he  would  not  have  granted  to 
thee  had  he  been  victor.  Many  even  who  had  been 
enhanced  in  riches  and  in  honours  have  I  seen  direct 
their  arms  against  thee,  and  the  day  that  ended 
the  battle  ended  for  thee  also  the  wrath  of  battle  ; 
both  sides  together  made  their  gifts  to  the  temples  ; 
and  as  thy  soldiery  rejoice  to  have  vanquished  the 
enemy,  so  the  enemy  has  reason  to  rejoice  at  his 
defeat.  My  cause  is  a  better  one,  for  none  assert 
that  I  have  followed  arms  opposed  to  thee,  or  hostile 

59 


OVID 

per  mare,  per  terras,  per  tertia  numina  iuro, 
per  te  praesentem  conspicuumque  deum, 
55  hunc  animum  favisse  tibi,  vir  maxime,  meque, 

qua  sola  potui,  mente  fuisse  tuum. 
optavi,  peteres  caelestia  sidera  tarde, 

parsque  fui  turbae  parva  precantis  idem, 
et  pia  tura  dedi  pro  te,  cumque  omnibus  unus 
60      ipse  quoque  adiuVi  publica  vota  meis. 

quid  referam  libros,  illos  quoque,  crimina  nostra, 

mille  locis  plenos  nominis  esse  tui  ? 
inspice  maius  opus,  quod  adhuc  sine  fine  tenetur,1 

in  non  credendos  corpora  versa  modos  : 
65  invenies  vestri  praeconia  nominis  illic, 

invenies  animi  pignora  multa  mei. 
non  tua  carminibus  maior  fit  gloria,  nee  quo, 

ut  maior  fiat,  crescere  possit,  habet. 
fama  lovi  superest :  tamen  hunc  sua  facta  referri 
70      et  se  materiam  carminis  esse  iuvat, 
cumque  Gigantei  memorantur  proelia  belli, 

credibile  est  laetum  laudibus  esse  suis. 
te  celebrant  alii,  quanto  decet  ore,  tuasque 

ingenio  laudes  uberiore  canunt : 
75  sed  tamen,  ut  fuso  taurorum  sanguine  centum, 

sic  capitur  minimo  turis  honore  deus. 
a  !  ferus  et  nobis  2  crudelior  omnibus  hostis, 

delicias  legit  qui  tibi  cumque  meas, 
carmina  ne  nostris  quae  te  venerantia  libris 
80      iudicio3  possint  candidiore  legi. 

esse  sed  irato  quis  te  mihi  posset  amicus  ? 
vix  tune  ipse  mihi  non  inimicus  eram. 
1  tenetur]  reliqui  a  nobis]  nimium  8  indicio 

1  Heaven.  a  Sec  Metam.  xv.  857  ft. 

60 


TRISTIA,  II.  53-82 

power.  By  sea,  by  earth,  by  the  third  power1  I 
swear,  by  thee,  a  present  and  manifest  deity,  that 
this  soul  of  mine  favoured  thee,  mightiest  of  men, 
and  that,  wherein  alone  I  could,  in  heart  I  have  been 
thine.  I  prayed  that  thou  mightest  make  thy  way 
late  to  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  I  was  an  humble 
member  of  the  throng  that  uttered  the  same  prayer  ; 
loyal  incense  I  offered  in  thy  behalf  and  with  all  the 
rest  I  too  aided  the  prayers  of  the  state  with  my  own. 

61  Why  should  I  say  that  my  books,  even  those 
which  are  my  accusers,  in  a  thousand  passages 
hold  thy  name  ?  Examine  the  greater  work,  which 
is  still  kept  unfinished,  the  book  of  figures  trans- 
formed in  ways  unbelievable  ;  thou  wilt  find  praises 
of  thy  name  there,2  thou  wilt  find  many  pledges  of 
my  loyalty.  Thy  glory  is  not  made  mightier  by 
song,  nor  has  it  room  wherein  to  grow  so  as  to  be 
made  mightier.  Jupiter  has  more  than  enough  of 
glory  :  yet  is  he  pleased  to  have  his  deeds  related 
and  himself  become  the  theme  of  song,  and  when 
the  battles  of  his  war  with  the  Giants  are  told,  we 
may  believe  that  he  finds  pleasure  in  his  praises. 
Thou  art  praised  by  others  in  a  lofty  style  that 
befits  thee  ;  they  sing  thy  praise  with  richer  gifts 
than  mine  ;  but  though  a  god  be  won  by  the  out- 
poured blood  of  a  hundred  bulls,  yet  is  he  also  won 
by  the  humblest  offering  of  incense. 

77  Alas  !  harsh  was  he  and  a  more  cruel  enemy  to 
me  than  all  the  rest,  who  read  to  thee  my  playful 
verse,  preventing  any  verse  that  honours  thee  in 
my  books  from  being  read  with  a  fairer  judgment. 
But  when  thou  wert  angry,  who  could  have  been 
friendly  to  me  ?  Scarce  could  I  at  that  time  re- 
frain from  being  an  enemy  to  myself.  When  once 

61 


OVID 

cum  coepit  quassata  domus  subsidere,  partes 

in  proclinatas  omne  recumbit  onus, 
85  cunctaque  fortuna  rimam  faciente  dehiscunt, 

inque  l  suo  cladem  pondere  tracta  ruunt. 
ergo    hominum    quaesitum    odium    mi  hi    carmine, 

quosque 

debuit,  est  vultus  turba  secuta  tuos. 
at,  memini,  vitamque  meam  moresque  probabas 
90      illo,  quern  dederas,  praetereuntis  equo. 
quod  si  non  prodest  et  honesti  gloria  nulla 

redditur,  at  nullum  crimen  adeptus  eram.2 
nee  male  commissa  est  nobis  fortuna  reorum 

lisque  3  decem  deciens  inspicienda  viris. 
95  res  quoque  privatas  statui  sine  crimine  iudex, 
deque  mea  fassa  est  pars  quoque  victa  fide, 
me  miserum  !  potui,  si  non  extrema  nocerent, 

iudicio  tutus  non  semel  esse  tuo. 
ultima  me  perdunt,  imoque  sub  aequore  mergit 
100      incolumem  totiens  una  procella  ratem. 

nee  mini  pars  nocuit  de  gurgite  parva,  sed  omnes 

pressere  hoc  fluctus  oceanusque  caput. 
cur  aliquid  vidi  ?  cur  noxia  lumina  feci  ? 

cur  imprudenti  cognita  culpa  mihi  ? 
105  inscius  Actaeon  vidit  sine  veste  Dianam  : 
praeda  fuit  canibus  non  minus  ille  suis. 
scilicet  in  superis  etiam  fortuna  luenda  est, 

nee  veniam  laeso  numine  casus  habet. 
ilia  nostra  die,  qua  me  malus  abstulit  error, 
110      parva  quidem  periit,  sed  sine  labe  domus  : 

1  ipse  .  .  .  quodam  corr.  Vogel.  z  eram]  erit 

8  usque  :  lisque  Heinsius 


62 


1  In  tl^e  annual  procession  of  the  knights. 


TRISTIA,  II.  83-110 

a  battered  house  has  begun  to  settle,  the  whole 
weight  leans  upon  the  yielding  parts, — when  fate 
causes  the  first  rift,  the  whole  gapes  apart  and  crashes 
to  destruction,  dragged  by  its  own  weight.  So 
my  verse  has  won  me  men's  dislike  ;  the  crowd,  as 
was  right,  have  only  guided  themselves  by  the 
expression  of  thy  face. 

89  And  yet,  I  remember,  thou  wert  wont  to  approve 
my  life  and  my  ways  when  I  passed  before  thee 
with  the  steed  thou  hadst  granted  me.1  If  that 
avails  me  not,  if  no  renown  for  what  is  honourable 
is  granted  me,  at  least  I  had  suffered  no  impeach- 
ment. Nor  was  fate  of  those  on  trial  wrongfully 
entrusted  to  me,  suits  to  be  examined  by  the 
centum virs.  Private  cases  also  I  brought  to  settle- 
ment, acting  without  criticism  as  referee ;  and 
even  the  defeated  side  admitted  my  good  faith. 
Wretched  me  !  were  it  not  for  the  injury  caused  me 
by  recent  events,  I  might  be  secure  through  more 
than  one  judgment  of  thine.  These  last  events 
ruin  me  ;  one  blast  sends  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea 
the  craft  that  has  so  many  times  been  safe. 
Tis  no  small  part  of  the  flood  that  has  wrought  me 
harm,  but  all  the  billows  of  ocean  have  fallen  upon 
my  head. 

103  why  did  I  see  anything  ?  Why  did  I  make 
my  eyes  guilty  ?  Why  was  I  so  thoughtless  as  to 
harbour  the  knowledge  of  a  fault  ?  Unwitting  was 
Actaeon  when  he  beheld  Diana  unclothed  ;  none 
the  less  he  became  the  prey  of  his  own  hounds. 
Clearly,  among  the  gods,  even  ill-fortune  must  be 
atoned  for,  nor  is  mischance  an  excuse  when  a  deity 
is  wronged.  On  that  day  when  my  ruinous  mistake 
ravished  me  away,  my  house,  humble  but  stainless, 

63 


OVID 

sic  quoque  parva  tamen,  patrio  dicatur  ut  aevo 

clara  nee  ullius  nobilitate  minor, 
et  neque  divitiis  nee  paupertate  notanda, 

unde  sit  in  neutrum  conspiciendus  eques. 
115  sit 1  quoque  nostra  domus  vel  censu  parva  vel  ortu,2 

ingenio  certe  non  latet  ilia  meo  ; 
quo  videar  quamvis  nimium  iuvenaliter  usus, 

grande  tamen  toto  nomen  ab  orbe  fero, 
turbaque  doctorum  Nasonem  novit  et  audet 
120      non  fastiditis  adnumerare  viris. 

corruit  haec  igitur  Musis  accepta,  sub  uno 

sed  non  exiguo  crimine  lapsa  domus  : 
atque  ea  sic  lapsa  est,  ut  surgere,  si  modo  laesi 

ematuruerit  Caesaris  ira,  queat, 
125  cuius  in  eventu  poenae  dementia  tanta  est, 

venerit  ut  nostro  lenior  ilia  metu. 
vita  data  est,  citraque  necem  tua  constitit  ira, 

0  princeps  parce  viribus  use  tuis  ! 
insuper  accedunt,  te  non  adimente,  paternae, 

130      tamquam  vita  parum  muneris  esset,  opes, 
nee  mea  decreto  damnasti  facta  senatus, 
nee  mea  selecto  iudice  iussa  fuga  est. 
tristibus  invectus  verbis — ita  principe  dignum — 

ultus  es  offensas,  ut  decet,  ipse  tuas. 
135  adde  quod  edictum,  quamvis  immite  minaxque, 

attamen  in  poenae  nomine  lene  fuit : 
quippe  relegatus,  non  exul,  dicor  in  illo, 

privaque  fortunae  sunt  ibi  verba  meae. 
nulla  quidem  sano  gravior  mentisque  potent! 
140      poena  est,  quam  tanto  displicuisse  viro  ; 

1  sit]  si  vel  sic  2  ortu]  astu 

1  If  the  text  is  right,  Ovid  means  that  the  language  of  th 
64 


TRISTIA,  II.  111-140 

was  destroyed — humble  indeed,  but  in  our  ancestors' 
time  'tis  said  to  have  been  illustrious  and  inferior 
in  fame  to  none,  though  noted  neither  for  wealth 
nor  poverty,  so  that  from  it  spring  knights  con- 
spicuous for  neither.  But  even  if  our  house  be 
small  in  wealth  and  in  origin,  at  least  my  genius 
does  not  suffer  it  to  be  obscure.  This  I  may  have 
employed  in  too  youthful  exuberance,  yet  my  name 
is  great  throughout  the  world  ;  a  throng  of  the 
cultured  are  well  acquainted  with  Naso  and  venture 
to  count  him  with  those  whom  they  do  not  despise. 

121  Fallen  then  is  my  house,  though  pleasing  to 
the  Muses,  beneath  one  charge  albeit  no  small  one — 
yet  so  fallen  that  it  can  rise  again,  if  only  time  shall 
mellow  the  wrath  of  injured  Caesar  whose  leniency 
in  the  penalty  that  has  befallen  is  such  that  the 
penalty  is  milder  than  1  feared.  Life  was  granted 
me  ;  thy  wrath  halted  ere  it  achieved  my  death  : 
O  sire,  with  what  restraint  hast  thou  used  thy 
power  !  Then  too  there  is  added — for  thou  takest 
it  not  away — my  inherited  wealth,  as  if  life  were  too 
small  a  gift.  Thou  didst  not  condemn  my  deeds 
through  a  decree  of  the  senate  nor  was  my  exile 
ordered  by  a  special  court.  With  words  of  stern 
invective — worthy  of  a  prince — thou  didst  thyself, 
as  is  fitting,  avenge  thine  own  injury.  And  thy 
command,  though  severe  and  threatening,  was  yet 
mild  in  naming  my  punishment,  for  it  calls  me 
relegatus,  not  exile,  and  thou  dost  use  therein  language 
especially  adapted  to  my  fate.1 

139  No  punishment  indeed  is  heavier  to  one  in 
command  of  his  senses  than  the  displeasure  of  so 

edict  was  not  that  which  was  customarily  used  but  was 

peculiar,  especially  in  calling  him  relegatus  (Introd.  p.  xviii). 

F  65 


OVID 

sed  solet  interdum  fieri  placabile  numen  : 

nube  solet  pulsa  candidus  ire  dies, 
vidi  ego  pampineis  oneratam  vitibus  ulmum, 

quae  fuerat  saevi  fulmine  tacta  lovis. 
145  ipse  licet  sperare  vetes,  sperabimus  usque l ; 

hoc  unum  fieri  te  prohibente  potest. 
spes  mihi  magna  subit,  cum  te,  mitissime  princeps, 

spes  mihi,  respicio  cum  mea  facta,  cadit. 
ac  veluti  ventis  agitantibus  aera  non  est 
150      aequalis  rabies  continuusque  furor, 

sed  modo  subsidunt  intermissique  silescunt, 

vimque  putes  illos  deposuisse  suam  : 
sic  abeunt  redeuntque  mei  variantque  timores, 

et  spem  placandi  dantque  negantque  tui. 
155  per  superos  igitur,  qui  dant  tibi  longa  dabuntque 

tempora,  Romanum  si  modo  nomen  amant, 
per  patriam,  quae  te  tuta  et  secura  parente  est, 

cuius,  ut  in  populo,  pars  ego  nuper  eram, — 
sic  tibi,  quern  semper  factis  animoque  mereris, 
1GO      reddatur  gratae  debitus  urbis  amor  ; 
Livia  sic  tecum  sociales  compleat  annos, 
quae,  nisi  te,  nullo  coniuge  digna  fuit, 
quae  si  non  esset,  caelebs  te  vita  deceret, 
nullaque,  cui  posses  esse  maritus,  erat ; 
165  sospite  sit  tecum  2  natus  quoque  sospes,  et  olim 

imperium  regat  hoc  cum  seniore  senex  ; 
ut  faciuntque  tui,  sidus  iu venal e,  nepotes, 
per  tua  perque  sui  facta  parentis  cant ; 
sic  adsueta  tuis  semper  Victoria  castris 
170      nunc  quoque  se  praestet  notaque  signa  pctat, 

1  utque  vel  atque  :   usque  Ihnistus 
2  si  tecum  vel  sic  te  sit  corr.  r 

1  Tiberius;  cf.  alsoTJrTff! 
2  Germanicus  and  Drusus  the  Younger. 
66 


TRISTIA,  II.  141-170 

mighty  a  man  as  thou  ;  yet  'tis  common  for  a  deity 
to  be  appeased  at  times  ;  'tis  common  for  clouds  to 
scatter  and  the  bright  daylight  to  return.  I  have 
seen  an  elm  laden  with  the  tendrils  of  a  vine  even 
after  it  had  been  blasted  by  the  thunderbolt  of 
angry  Jove.  Though  thou  dost  thyself  forbid  me 
to  hope,  I  shall  hope  constantly  ;  this  one  thing 
can  be  done  in  spite  of  thy  command.  Strong  hope 
comes  upon  me  when  I  regard  thee,  most  merciful 
of  princes,  but  hope  fails  me  when  I  regard  my 
own  deeds.  As  in  the  winds  that  buffet  the  air 
there  is  no  steady,  no  constant  madness,  but  now 
they  decrease  or  are  lulled  to  silence  so  that  one 
would  suppose  they  had  laid  aside  their  powrer,  in 
this  wise  my  fears  depart,  return,  or  change,  giving 
me  or  denying  me  hope  of  appeasing  thee. 

155  Wherefore  by  the  gods  above,  who  give  and 
will  give  thee  long  years,  if  only  they  love  the  Roman 
race,  by  our  native  land  which  is  safe  and  secure 
under  thy  fatherly  care,  of  which  I  as  one  among 
the  people  was  but  recently  a  part ;  so,  I  pray, 
may  there  be  duly  paid  thee  by  a  grateful  city  that 
debt  of  love  which  thy  constant  deeds  and  spirit 
deserve  ;  so  in  union  with  thee  may  Li  via  fill  out 
her  years — she  whom  no  husband  but  thou  deserved, 
but  for  whose  existence  an  unwedded  life  would 
befit  thee  and  there  were  none  other  whom  thou 
couldst  espouse  ;  so,  together  with  thy  safety  may 
thy  son l  too  be  safe,  and  one  day  rule  this  empire, 
an  old  man  with  one  still  older ;  and  may  thy 
grandsons,2  stars  of  the  youth,  still  hold  their  course, 
as  now  they  do,  through  thy  deeds  and  those  of 
their  own  sire  ;  so  may  Victory,  always  at  home  in 
thy  camp,  now  also  present  herself,  seeking  the 

67 


OVID 

Ausoniumque  ducem  solitis  circumvolet  alls, 

ponat  et  in  nitida  laurea  serta  coma, 
per  quern  bella  geris,  cuius  nunc  corpore  pugnas, 

auspicium  cui  das  grande  deosque  tuos, 
175  dimidioque  tui  praesens  es  et  aspicis l  urbem, 

dimidio  procul  es  saevaque  bella  geris  ; 
hie  tibi  sic  redeat  superato  victor  ab  hoste, 

inque  coronatis  fulgeat  altus  equis, — 
parce,  precor,  fulmenque  tuum,  fera  tela,  reconde, 
180      heu  nimium  misero  cognita  tela  mihi  ! 

parce,  pater  patriae,  nee  nominis  inmemor  huius 

olim  placandi  spem  mihi  tolle  tui ! 
non  precor  ut  redeam,  quamvis  maiora  petitis 

credibile  est  magnos  saepe  dedisse  deos  ; 
185  mitius  exilium  si  das  propiusque  roganti, 

pars  erit  ex  poena  magna  levata  rnea. 
ultima  perpetior  medios  eiectus  in  hostes, 

nee  quisquam  patria  longius  exul  abest. 
solus  ad  egressus  missus  septemplicis  Histri 
190      Parrhasiae  gelido  virginis  axe  premor — 
Ciziges  et  Colchi  Tereteaque  2  turba  Getaeque 

Danuvii  mediis  vix  prohibentur  aquis — 
cumque  alii  causa  tibi  sint  graviore  fugati, 

ulterior  nulli,  quam  mihi,  terra  data  est. 
195  longius  hac  nihil  est,  nisi  tantum  frigus  et  hostes, 

et  maris  adstricto  quae  coit  unda  gelu. 
hactenus  Kuxini  pars  est  Romana  sinistri : 

proxima  Basternae  Sauromataeque  tenent. 

1  et  (es)  respicis  :   es  et  aspicis  <T 
2  inetereaque  corr.  Ellis 


1  A  different  people  from  the  Colchi  who  dwelt  east  o 
the  Pontus.  Perhaps  191-193  should  he  transposed  afte 
198,  c/.  Owen,  Trist.,  1889,  pp.  xcv-xcvi. 

68 


TRISTIA,  II.  171-198 

standards  so  well  known  to  her,  hovering  with 
familiar  wings  about  the  Ausonian  leader  and 
placing  the  laurel  wreath  upon  the  shining  hair  of 
him  through  whom  thou  dost  wage  wars,  in  whose 
person  thou  art  now  doing  battle,  to  whom  thou  dost 
grant  thy  lofty  auspices  and  thy  gods  and  thus  art 
half  present,  keeping  watch  o'er  the  city,  and  half 
far  away  conducting  savage  wars ;  so  may  he  return 
to  thee  after  conquering  the  foe,  and  be  seen  in 
radiance  high  on  a  garlanded  car — oh  spare  me,  I 
pray,  and  hide  away  thy  thunderbolt,  cruel  weapon, 
alas  !  but  too  well  known  to  wretched  me  !  Spare 
me,  father  of  our  country  !  Do  not.  forgetful  of 
this  name,  take  from  me  the  hope  that  sometime  I 
may  appease  thee  !  I  pray  not  for  return,  even 
though  we  may  believe  that  more  than  the  prayer 
has  oft  been  granted  by  the  mighty  gods.  Grant 
me  a  milder  and  a  nearer  place  of  exile,  and  a  large 
part  of  my  punishment  will  be  lightened. 

187  I  am  now  enduring  the  extreme,  thrust  forth 
into  the  midst  of  enemies  ;  no  exile  is  farther  from 
his  native  land.  I  alone  have  been  sent  to  the 
mouths  of  the  seven-streamed  Hister,  I  am  crushed 
beneath  the  Parrhasian  virgin's  icy  pole.  The 
Ciziges,  the  Colchi,1  the  hordes  of  Teretei,  and  the 
Getae  are  scarce  fended  off  by  the  interposition  of 
the  Danube's  waters.  Though  others  have  been 
exiled  for  weightier  cause,  a  more  remote  land  has 
been  assigned  to  no  one  ;  nothing  is  farther  away 
than  this  land  except  only  the  cold  and  the  enemy 
and  the  sea  whose  waters  congeal  with  the  frost. 
Here  is  the  end  of  Rome's  domain  on  the  ill-omened 
Euxine's  shore  ;  hard  by  the  Basternae  and  Sauro- 
matae  hold  sway.  This  land  comes  last  of  all  beneath 

69 


OVID 

haec  est  Ausonio  sub  iure  novissima  vixque 
200      haeret  in  imperil  margine  terra  tui. 

unde  precor  supplex  ut  nos  in  tuta  releges, 

ne  sit  cum  patria  pax  quoque  adempta  mihi, 
ne  timeam  gentes,  quas  non  bene  summovet  Histcr, 

neve  tuus  possim  civis  ab  hoste  capi. 
205  fas  prohibet  Latio  quemquam  de  sanguine  natum 

Caesaribus  salvis  barbara  vincla  pati. 
perdiderint  cum  me  duo  crimina,  carmen  et  error, 

alterius  facti  culpa  silenda  mihi  : 
nam  non  sum  tanti,  renovem  ut  tua  vulnera,  Caesar, 
210      quern  nimio  plus  est  indoluisse  semel. 

altera  pars  superest,  qua  turpi  carmine  factus 

arguor  obsceni  doctor  adulterii. 
fas  ergo  est  aliqua  caelestia  pectora  falli, 

et  sunt  notitia  multa  minora  tua  ; 
215  utque  deos  caelumque  simul  sublime  tuenti 

non  vacat  exiguis  rebus  adesse  lovi, 
de  te  pendentem  sic  dum  circumspicis  orbem, 

effugiunt  curas  inferiora  tuas. 
scilicet  imperii  princeps  statione  relicta 
220      imparibus  legeres  carmina  facta  modis  ? 
non  ea  te  moles  Romani  nominis  urguet, 

inque  tuis  umeris  tarn  leve  fertur  onus, 
lusibus  ut  possis  advertere  numen  ineptis, 

excutiasque  oculis  otia  nostra  tuis. 
225  nunc  tibi  Pannonia  est,  nunc  Illyris  ora  domanda, 

Raetica  nunc  praebent  Thraciaque  arma  me  turn, 
nunc  petit  Armenius  pacem,  nunc  porrigit  arcus 

Parthus  eques  timida  captaque  signa  manu, 


1  The  Ars  amatoria. 
70 


TRISTIA,  II.  199-228 

Ausonian  law,  clinging  with  difficulty  to  the  very 
edge  of  thy  empire. 

201  And  so  I  offer  a  suppliant's  prayer  that  thou 
wilt  banish  me  to  a  safe  abode — that  together  with 
my  fatherland  peace  also  be  not  taken  from  me, 
that  I  may  not  fear  the  tribes  which  the  Hister 
holds  insecurely  in  check,  that  I,  thy  subject,  be  not 
within  an  enemy's  power  to  capture.  Right  forbids 
that  anyone  of  Latin  blood  should  suffer  barbarian 
bondage  while  Caesars  live. 

207  Though  two  crimes,  a  poem l  and  a  blunder, 
have  brought  me  ruin,  of  my  fault  in  the  one  I 
must  keep  silent,  for  my  worth  is  not  such  that  I 
may  reopen  thy  wounds,  O  Caesar  ;  'tis  more  than 
enough  that  thou  shouldst  have  been  pained  once. 
The  other  remains  :  the  charge  that  by  an  obscene 
poem  I  have  taught  foul  adultery.  'Tis  possible 
then,  somehow,  for  divine  minds  to  be  deceived,  for 
many  things  to  be  beneath  thy  notice.  As  Jove 
who  watches  at  once  o'er  the  gods  and  the  lofty 
heaven  has  not  leisure  to  give  heed  to  small  things, 
so  whilst  thou  dost  gaze  about  upon  the  world  that 
depends  upon  thee,  things  of  less  moment  escape 
thy  care.  Shouldst  thou,  forsooth,  the  prince  of 
the  world,  abandon  thy  post  and  read  songs  of  mine 
set  to  unequal  measure  ?  That  weight  of  the  Roman 
name  does  not  lay  so  light  a  burden  upon  thy 
shoulders  that  thou  canst  direct  thy  divine  attention 
to  silly  trifles,  examining  with  thine  own  eye  the 
product  of  my  leisure  hours.  Now  Pannoiiia,  now 
the  Illyrian  shore  must  be  subdued  by  thee,  now 
the  wars  in  Raetia  or  Thrace  bring  thee  anxiety  ; 
now  the  Armenian  seeks  peace,  now  the  Parthian 
horseman  extends  to  thee  with  timorous  hand  his 

71 


OVID 

nunc  te  prole  tua  iuvenem  Germania  sentit, 
230      bellaque  pro  magno  Caesare  Caesar  obit ; 

denique,  ut  in  tanto,  quantum  non  extitit  umquam, 

corpore  pars  nulla  est,  quae  labet,  imperii. 
urbs  quoque  te  et  legum  lassat  tutela  tuarum 

et  morum,  similes  quos  cupis  esse  tuis. 
235  nee l  tibi  contingunt,  quae  gentibus  otia  praestas, 

bellaque  cum  multis  inrequieta  geris. 
mirer  in  hoc  igitur  tantarum  pondere  rerum 

te  numquam  nostros  evoluisse  iocos  ? 
at  si,  quod  mallem,  vacuum  tibi  forte 2  fuisset, 
240      nullum  legisses  crimen  in  Arte  mea. 
ilia  quidem  fateor  frontis  non  esse  severae 
scripta,  nee  a  tanto  principe  digna  legi : 
non  tamen  idcirco  legum  contraria  iussis 

sunt  ea  Romanas  erudiuntque  nurus. 
245  neve,  quibus  scribam,  possis  dubitare,  libellos, 

quattuor  hos  versus  e  tribus  unus  habet : 
"  este  procul,  vittae  tenues,  insigne  pudoris, 
quaeque  tegis  medios  instita  longa  pedes  ! 
nil  nisi  legitimum  concessaque  furta  canemus, 
250      inque  meo  nullum  carmine  crimen  erit." 
ecquid  ab  hac  omnes  rigide  summovimus  Arte, 

quas  stola  contingi  vittaque  sumpta  vetat  ? 
"  at  matrona  potest  alienis  artibus  uti, 

quodque  3  trahat,  quamvis  non  doceatur,  habet." 
255  nil  igitur  matrona  legat,  quia  carmine  ab  omni 
ad  delinquendum  doctior  esse  potest. 

1  non  2  tibi  forte]  fortas.se  3  quoque 

1  Tiberius. 

2  See  Ar»  amat.  i.  31-34.     The  verses  are  almost  identical. 

3  The  instita  was  a  border  or  ruffle  woven  to  the  lower 
edge  of  the  matron's  dress  (stola). 

72 


TRISTIA,   II.  229-256 

bow  and  the  standards  once  he  seized  ;  now  through 
thy  son  l  Germany  feels  thy  youthful  vigour,  and  a 
Caesar  wars  for  a  mighty  Caesar.  In  fine,  though 
the  body  of  the  empire  is  vaster  than  has  ever  ex- 
isted, no  part  is  weak.  The  city  also  wearies  thee, 
and  the  guardianship  of  thy  laws  and  of  the  morals 
which  thou  dost  desire  to  be  like  thine  own,  nor  to 
thy  lot  falls  that  repose  thou  bestowest  upon  the 
nations,  for  thou  art  waging  many  wars  that  allow 
thee  no  rest. 

237  Can  I  wonder,  then,  that  under  this  weight  of 
great  affairs  thou  hast  never  unrolled  the  volume 
of  my  jests  ?  Yet  if,  as  I  could  wish,  thou  hadst 
chanced  to  have  the  leisure,  thou  wouldst  have  read 
no  crimes  in  my  "  Art."  That  poem,  I  admit,  has 
no  serious  mien,  it  is  not  worthy  to  be  read  by  so 
great  a  prince  ;  but  not  for  that  reason  is  it  opposed 
to  the  commandments  of  the  law,  nor  does  it  offer 
teaching  to  the  daughters  of  Rome.  And  that  thou 
may'st  not  doubt  for  whom  I  write,  one  of  the  three 
books  contains  these  four  verses  : 2  "  Far  from  me  ! 
ye  narrow  fillets,  badge  of  modesty  !  and  thou,  long 
ruffle  3  covering  half  the  feet  !  I  shall  sing  of  naught 
but  what  is  lawful,  of  loves  which  men  allow.  There 
shall  be  in  my  song  no  sin."  Have  I  not  strictly  ex- 
cluded from  this  "  Art  "  all  women  whom  the  assump- 
tion of  the  robe  and  fillet  of  wedlock  protect  ? 

253  But,  thou  mayst  say,  the  matron  can  use  arts 
intended  for  others  and  draw  therefrom  instruction, 
though  she  be  not  herself  the  pupil.  Let  the 
matron  read  nothing  then,  for  from  every  song 
she  can  gain  wisdom  for  sin.  From  whatever 

73 


OVID 

quodcumque  attigerit,  siqua  est  studiosa  sinistri, 

ad  vitium  mores  instruct  inde  suos. 
sumpserit  Annales — nihil  est  hirsutius  illis — 
260      facta  sit  unde  parens  Ilia,  nempe  leget. 

sumpserit  Aeneadum  genetrix  ubi  prima,  requiret, 

Aeneadum  genetrix  unde  sit  alma  Venus, 
persequar  inferius,  modo  si  licet  ordine  ferri, 

posse  nocere  animis  carminis  omne  genus. 
265  non  tamen  idcirco  crimen  liber  omnis  habebit : 

nil  prodest,  quod  non  laedere  possit  idem, 
igne  quid  utilius  ?  siquis  tamen  urere  tecta 

comparat,  audaces  instruit  igne  manus. 
eripit  interdum,  modo  dat  medicina  salutem, 
270      quaeque  iuvet,  monstrat,  quaeque  sit  herba  nocens. 
et  latro  et  cautus  praecingitur  ense  viator  ; 

ille  sed  insidias,  hie  sibi  portat  opem. 
discitur  innocuas  ut  agat  facundia  causas  ; 

protegit  haec  sontes,  inmeritosque  premit. 
275  sic  igitur  carmen,  recta  si  mente  legatur, 

constabit  nulli  posse  nocere  meum. 
"  at  quasdam  vitio."     quicumque  hoc  concipit,  errat, 

et  nimium  scriptis  arrogat  ille  meis. 
ut  tamen  hoc  fatear,  ludi  quoque  semina  praebent 
280      nequitiae  :  tolli  tota  theatra  iube  ! 

peccandi  causam  multis  quam1  saepe  dederunt, 

Martia  cum  durum  sternit  harena  solum  ! 
tollatur  Circus  !  non  tuta  licentia  Circi  est : 

hie  sedet  ignoto  iuncta  puella  viro. 

1  multi  quam  vel  quam  multis  corr.  Riese 

1  Probably  the  Annals  of  Ennius. 

2  The  opening  words  of  Lucretius'   De  rerum  natura. 
The    Romans   often   refer   to   a   work   by   citing   the   first 
words. 

74 


TRISTIA,  II.  257-284 

she  touches,  be  she  inclined  to  wrongdoing,  she 
will  equip  her  character  for  vice.  Let  her  take 
up  the  Annals l — naught  is  ruder  than  they — she 
will  surely  read  by  whom  Ilia  became  a  mother. 
So  soon  as  she  takes  up  the  "  Aeneadum  genetrix,"  2 
she  will  ask  by  whom  fostering  Venus  became  the 
mother  of  the  Aeneadae.  I  will  show  later,  if  only 
I  may  present  it  in  order,  that  it  is  possible  for  the 
soul  to  be  injured  by  every  kind  of  poem.  Yet  not 
on  that  account  shall  every  book  be  guilty.  Nothing 
is  useful  which  cannot  at  the  same  time  be  injurious. 
What  more  useful  than  fire  ?  Yet  whoever  is 
making  ready  to  burn  a  house  arms  his  criminal 
hands  with  fire.  Medicine  sometimes  removes, 
sometimes  bestows  safety,  showing  what  plant  is 
healthful,  what  harmful.  Both  the  brigand  and  the 
cautious  wayfarer  gird  on  a  sword,  but  the  one 
carries  it  for  treacherous  attack,  the  other  for  his 
own  defence.  Eloquence  is  learned  for  the  conduct 
of  just  causes  ;  yet  it  protects  the  guilty  and  crushes 
the  innocent.  So  then  with  verse  :  if  it  be  read  with 
upright  mind,  it  will  be  established  that  it  can 
injure  nobody — even  though  it  be  mine. 

277  "  But  there  are  certain  women  whom  I  deprave." 
Whoever  believes  this  is  mistaken  and  attributes 
too  much  to  my  works.  Even  should  I  admit  this 
charge,  the  games  also  furnish  the  seeds  of  wrong- 
doing ;  order  the  abolition  of  all  the  theatres  !  A 
pretext  for  sin  has  oft  been  found  by  many  at  the 
time  when  the  hard  earth  is  covered  with  the  sand 
of  Mars  3  ;  abolish  the  Circus  !  The  license  of  the 
Circus  is  not  safe,  for  here  a  girl  may  sit  close  to  a 

3  i.e.  the  arena  in  which  gladiatorial  displays,  etc., 
occurred. 

75 


OVID 

285  cum  quaedam  spatientur  in  hoc,1  ut  amator  eodem  2 

conveniat,  quare  porticus  ulla  patet  ? 
quis  locus  est  templis  augustior  ?  haec  quoque  vitet, 

in  culpam  siqua  est  ingeniosa  suam. 
cum  steterit  lovis  aede,  lovis  succurret  in  acde 
290      quam  multas  matres  fecerit  ille  deus. 
proxima  adoranti  lunonis  templa  subibit, 

paelicibus  multis  hanc  doluisse  deam. 
Pallade  conspecta,  natum  de  crimine  virgo 
sustulerit  quare,  quaeret,  Erich thonium. 
295  venerit  in  magni  templum,  tua  munera,  Martis, 

stat  Venus  Ultori  iuncta,  vir  3  ante  fores. 
Isidis  aede  sedens,  cur  hanc  Saturnia,  quaeret, 

egerit  lonio  Bosphorioque  mari. 
in  Venerem  Anchises,  in  Lunam  Latmius  heros, 
300      in  Cererem  lasion,  qui  referatur,  erit. 

omnia  perversas  possunt  corrumpere  mentes  ; 

stant  tamen  ilia  suis  omnia  tuta  locis. 
et  procul  a  scripta  solis  meretricibus  Arte 

summovet  ingenuas  pagina  prima  manus. 
305  quaecumque  erupit,  qua  non  sinit  ire  sacerdos, 

protinus  huic  4  dempti  criminis  ipsa  re  a  est. 
nee  tamen  est  facinus  versus  evolvere  mollis ; 

multa  licet  castae  non  facienda  legant. 
saepe  supercilii  nudas  matrona  severi 
310      et  veneris  stantis  ad  genus  omne  videt. 
corpora  Vestales  oculi  meretricia  cernunt, 
nee  domino  poenae  res  ea  causa  fuit. 

1  hac  2  eadcm  3  viro 

4  haec  ;  huic  Rothmaler 

1  After  the  battle  of  Actium  Augustus  built  a  temple 
to  Mars,  the  Avenger. 

*  This  probably  refers  to  the  statues  of  Venus  Genetrix  and 
Mars  by  Arcesilaus.  The  goddess  was  depicted  fully  clothed, 
perhaps  in  a  man's  armour,  and  Cupid  was  shown  gliding 

76 


TRISTIA,  II.  285-312 

strange  man.  Since  certain  women  stroll  in  them, 
intent  on  meeting  a  lover  there,  why  does  any 
portico  stand  open  ?  What  place  more  dignified 
than  the  temples  ?  But  these  too  should  be  avoided 
by  any  woman  whose  nature  inclines  to  fault.  When 
she  stands  in  Jupiter's  temple,  in  Jupiter's  temple 
it  will  occur  to  her  how  many  that  god  has  caused 
to  be  mothers. 

291  As  she  worships  in  the  neighbouring  temple 
of  Juno,  the  thought  will  come  upon  her  that  many 
rivals  have  caused  this  goddess  wrath.  When  she 
has  looked  on  Pallas,  she  will  ask  why  the  virgin 
brought  up  Erichthonius,  the  child  of  sin.  If  she 
enters  the  temple  of  mighty  Mars,  thine  own  gift,1 
Venus  stands  close  to  the  Avenger,  in  the  guise  of 
a  man  before  the  door.2  If  she  sit  in  Isis'  fane,  she 
will  ask  why  she  was  driven  by  Saturnia  over  the 
Ionian  sea  and  the  Bosporus.  Anchises  will  remind 
her  of  Venus,  the  Latmian  hero  3  of  Luna,  lasion  of 
Ceres.  All  things  can  corrupt  perverted  minds, 
yet  all  those  things  stand  harmless  in  their  proper 
places.  Far  from  the  "  Art,"  written  for  courtesans 
alone,  its  first  page  warns  the  hands  of  upright 
women.  Any  woman  who  breaks  away  to  a  place 
forbidden  by  a  priest,  forthwith  removes  from  him 
the  sin  and  becomes  herself  guilty.  Nevertheless 
it  is  no  crime  to  read  tender  verse  ;  the  chaste  may 
read  much  that  they  should  not  do.  Often  matrons 
of  serious  brow  behold  women  nude,  ready  for 
every  kind  of  lust.  The  eyes  of  Vestals  behold  the 
bodies  of  courtesans  nor  has  that  been  the  cause 
of  punishment  to  their  owner. 

down  in  such  a  way  as  to  form  a  bond  (iuncta)  between  the 
divinities.  8  Endymion. 

77 


OVID 

at  cur  in  nostra  nimia  est  lascivia  Musa, 

curve  meus  cuiquam  suadet  amare  liber  ? 
315  nil  nisi  peccatum  manifestaque  culpa  fatenda  est : 

paenitet  ingenii  iudiciique  mei. 
cur  non  Argolicis  potius  quae  concidit  armis 

vexata  est  iterum  carmine  Troia  meo  ? 
cur  tacui  Thebas  et  vulnera  mutua  fratrum, 
320      et  septeni  portas,  sub  duce  quamque  suo  ? 
nee  mihi  materiam  bellatrix  Roma  negabat, 

et  pius  est  patriae  faeta  referre  labor, 
denique  cum  meritis  impleveris  omnia,  Caesar, 

pars  mihi  de  multis  una  canenda  fuit, 
325  utque  trahunt  oculos  radiantia  lumina  solis, 

traxissent  animum  sic  tua  facta  meum. 
arguor  inmerito.     tenuis  mihi  campus  aratur  ; 

illud  erat  magnae  fertilitatis  opus, 
non  ideo  debet  pelago  se  credere,  siqua 
330      audet  in  exiguo  ludere  cumba  lacu. 

forsan — et  hoc  dubitem — numeris  levioribus  aptus 

sim  satis,  in  parvos  sufficiamque  modos  : 
at  si  me  iubeas  domitos  lovis  igne  Gigantes 

dicere,  conantem  debilitabit  onus 
335  divitis  ingenii  est  immania  Caesaris  acta 

condere,  materia  ne  superetur  opus, 
et  tarnen  ausus  eram  ;  sed  detrectarc  videbar, 

quodque  nefas,  damno  viribus  esse  tuis. 
ad  leve  rursus  opus,  iuvenalia  carmina,  veni, 
340      et  falso  movi  pectus  amore  meum. 

non  equidem  vellem.     sed  me  mea  fata  trahebant, 

inque  meas  poenas  ingeniosus  eram. 
ei  mihi,  quod  didiei  !  cur  me  docuere  parentes 

litteraque  est  oculos  ulla  morata  meos  ? 

1  Eteocles  and  Polynices. 
78 


TRISTIA,  II.  313-34* 

313  Yet  why  is  my  muse  so  wanton  ?  Why  does 
my  book  advise  anybody  to  love  ?  There  is  naught 
for  me  but  confession  of  my  error  and  my  obvious 
fault  :  1  repent  of  my  talent  and  my  tastes.  Why 
rather  did  I  not  harass  once  again  in  my  song  Troy, 
whieh  fell  before  the  Argive  arms  ?  Why  was  I 
silent  of  Thebes  and  the  mutual  wrounds  of  the 
brothers,1  and  the  seven  gates  each  under  command 
of  its  own  leader  ?  Warlike  Rome  did  not  refuse 
me  a  subject,  arid  'tis  a  pious  task  to  tell  the  story 
of  one's  native  land.  In  fine,  since  thou  hast  filled 
the  world  with  thy  great  deeds,  Caesar,  some  one 
part  of  those  many  should  have  been  the  theme 
of  my  song,  and  as  the  glittering  rays  of  the 
sun  attract  the  eye,  so  thy  exploits  would  have 
drawn  forth  my  powers.  Undeservedly  am  1  blamed. 
Poor  is  the  field  I  plough  ;  that  was  a  theme  mighty 
and  fruitful.  A  skiff  ought  not  to  trust  itself  to  the 
sea  just  because  it  ventures  to  disport  itself  in  a 
little  pool.  Perhaps  (even  this  I  may  doubt)  I  am 
well  enough  suited  to  lighter  verse,  capable  of  humble 
measures  ;  but  if  thou  shouldst  bid  me  sing  of  the 
Giants  conquered  by  Jove's  lightning,  the  burden 
will  weaken  me  in  the  attempt.  Only  a  rich  mind 
can  tell  the  tale  of  Caesar's  mighty  deeds  if  the 
theme  is  not  to  surpass  the  work.  Even  so  I  made  the 
venture,  but  methought  I  impaired  the  theme  and — 
an  impious  thing — wrought  injury  to  thy  might. 

339  1  returned  once  more  to  my  light  task,  the 
songs  of  youth,  stimulating  my  breast  with  fictitious 
love.  Would  that  I  had  not  !  But  my  fate  drew 
me  on  to  be  clever  to  my  own  hurt.  Alas  that  I 
ever  acquired  learning  !  Why  did  my  parents  teach 
me  ?  Why  did  any  letter  ever  beguile  my  eyes  ? 

79 


OVID 

345  hacc  tibi  me  invisum  lascivia  fecit,  ob  artes, 

quis  ratus  es  vetitos  sollicitare  toros. 
sed  neque  me  nuptae  didicerunt  furta  magistro, 

quodque  parum  novit,  nemo  docere  potest. 
sic  ego  delicias  et  mollia  carmina  feci, 
350      strinxerit  ut  nomen  fabula  nulla  meum. 

nee  quisquam  est  adeo  media  de  plebe  maritus, 

ut  dubius  vitio  sit  pater  ille  meo. 
crede  mihi,  distant  mores  a  carmine  nostro — 

vita  verecunda  est,  Musa  iocosa  mea — 
355  magnaque  pars  mendax  operum  est  et  ficta  meorum  : 

plus  sibi  permisit  cornpositore  suo. 
nee  liber  indicium  est  animi,  sed  honesta  voluntas 1 

plurima  mulcendis  auribus  apta  ferens.2 
Accius  esset  atrox,  conviva  Terentius  essct, 
360      essent  pugnaces  qui  fera  bella  eanunt. 
denique  composui  teneros  non  solus  amores  : 

composito  poenas  solus  amore  dedi. 
quid,  nisi  cum  multo  Venerem  confundere  vino 

praecepit  lyrici  Tei'a  Musa  senis  ? 
365  Lesbia  quid  docuit  Sappho,  nisi  amare,  puellas  ? 

tuta  tamen  Sappho,  tutus  et  ille  fuit. 
nee  tibi,  Battiade,  nocuit,  quod  saepe  legenti 

delicias  versu  fassus  es  ipse  tuas. 
fabula  iucundi  nulla  est  sine  amore  Menandri, 
370      et  solet  hie  pueris  virginibusque  legi. 

Ilias  ipsa  quid  est  aliud  nisi  adultera,  de  qua 

inter  amatorem  pugna  virumque  fuit  ? 
quid  prius  est  illi  flamma  Briscidos,  utque 

fecerit  iratos  rapta  puella  duces  ? 

1  voluptas  2  feret  vd  fores  :   ferens  r 

1  359-360  are  the  conclusion  of  a  condition,  "  if  this  were 
not  true,"  implied  in  357-358. 
80 


TRISTIA,  IL  345-374 

This  wantonness  has  caused  thee  to  hate  me  on 
account  of  the  arts  which  thou  didst  think  disturbed 
unions  that  all  were  forbidden  to  attack.  But  no 
brides  have  learned  deceptions  through  my  teach- 
ing ;  nobody  can  teach  that  of  which  he  knows  too 
little.  I  have  composed  songs  of  pleasure  and  love 
but  in  such  fashion  that  no  scandal  has  ever  touched 
my  name.  No  husband  exists  even  amid  the  common 
people  who  doubts  his  fatherhood  through  sin  of 
mine.  I  assure  you,  my  character  differs  from  my 
verse  (my  life  is  moral,  my  muse  is  gay),  and  most 
of  my  work,  unreal  and  fictitious,  has  allowed  itself 
more  licence  than  its  author  has  had.  A  book  is  not 
an  evidence  of  one's  soul,  but  an  honourable  impulse 
that  presents  very  many  things  suited  to  charm  the 
ear.  Else  1  would  Accius  be  cruel,  Terence  a  reveller, 
or  those  would  be  quarrelsome  who  sing  of  fierce 
war. 

361  Moreover,  not  I  alone  have  written  tales  of 
tender  love,  but  for  writing  of  love  I  alone  have 
been  punished.  What  but  the  union  of  love  and 
lavish  wine  was  the  teaching  of  the  lyric  muse  of 
the  aged  Tean  bard  2  ?  What  did  Lesbian  Sappho 
teach  the  girls  if  not  love  ?  Yet  Sappho  was  secure, 
the  Tean  also  was  secure.  It  did  not  injure  thee, 
scion  of  Battus,3  that  thou  didst  often  in  verse  confess 
to  the  reader  thy  wanton  pleasures.  No  play  of 
charming  Menander  is  free  from  love,  yet  he  is 
wont  to  be  read  by  boys  and  girls.  The  very  Iliad 
— what  is  it  but  an  adulteress  about  whom  her  lover 
and  her  husband  fought  ?  What  occurs  in  it  before 
the  flaming  passion  for  Briseis  and  the  feud  between 
the  chiefs  due  to  the  seizure  of  the  girl  ?  What  is 
2  Anacreon.  8  Callimachus. 

G  81 


OVID 

375  aut  quid  Odyssea  est  nisi  femina  propter  amorem, 

dum  vir  abest,  multis  una  petita  prods  ? 
quis  nisi  Maeonides,  Venerem  Martemque  ligatos 

narrat,  in  obsceno  corpora  prensa  toro  ? 
unde  nisi  indicio  magni  sciremus  Homeri 
380      hospitis  igne  duas  incaluisse-  deas  ? 

omne  genus  scripti  gravitate  tragoedia  vincit : 
haec  quoque  materiam  semper  amoris  habet. 
num  quid l  in  Hippolyto,  nisi  caecae  flamma  novercae  ? 

nobilis  est  Canace  fratris  amore  sui. 
385  quid  ?  non  Tantalides,  agitante  Cupidine  currus, 

Pisaeam  Phrygiis  vexit  eburnus  equis  ? 
tingueret  ut  ferrum  natorum  sanguine  mater, 

concitus  a  laeso  fecit  amore  dolor, 
fecit  amor  subitas  volucres  cum  paelice  regem, 
390      quaeque  suum  luget  nunc  quoque  mater  Ityn. 
si  non  Aeropen  frater  sceleratus  amasset, 

aversos  Solis  non  legeremus  equos. 
impia  nee  tragicos  tetigisset  Scylla  cothurnos, 

ni  patrium  crinem  desecuisset  amor. 
395  qui  legis  Electran  et  egentem  mentis  Oresten,2 

Aegisthi  crimen  Tyndaridosque  legis. 
nam  quid  de  tetrico  referam  domitore  Chimaerae, 

quern  leto  fallax  hospita  paene  dedit  ? 
quid  loquar  Hermionen,  quid  te,  Schoenela  virgo, 
400      teque,  Mycenaeo  Phoebas  amata  duci  ? 

1  namquid  2  orestcm 

1  Penelope. 
2  Circe  and  Calypso,  who  loved  Ulysses. 

3  Phaedra. 

4  Pelops,  who  had  an  ivory  shoulder. 

e  Medea.  6  Terms. 

7  i.e.  would  never  have  become  a  theme  for  tragedy. 

82 


TRISTIA,  II.  375-400 

the  Odyssey  except  the  story  of  one  woman  l  wooed 
in  her  husband's  absence  for  love's  sake  by  many 
suitors  ?  Who  but  the  Maeonian  tells  of  Venus 
and  Mars  caught  in  bonds  of  unseemly  love  ?  On 
whose  evidence  but  that  of  great  Homer  should  we 
know  of  two  goddesses  2  on  fire  with  passion  for  a 
guest  ? 

381  Every  kind  of  writing  is  surpassed  in  serious- 
ness by  tragedy,  but  this  also  constantly  deals  with 
the  theme  of  love.  Is  there  aught  in  the  Hippo- 
lytus  except  the  blind  passion  of  a  stepmother  3  ? 
Canace's  fame  is  due  to  her  love  for  her  brother. 
Again,  did  not  the  ivory  scion  4  of  Tantalus,  while 
Cupid  drove  the  car,  bear  away  the  Pisan  maiden 
with  his  Phrygian  horses  ?  The  mother 5  who 
stained  her  sword  with  the  blood  of  her  children 
was  roused  to  the  deed  by  the  anger  of  slighted  love. 
Love  suddenly  transformed  into  birds  the  king 6 
with  his  paramour,  and  that  mother  who  still  mourns 
her  son  Itys.  If  her  accursed  brother  had  not 
loved  Aerope  we  should  not  read  about  the  horses 
of  the  Sun  turning  aside.  Wicked  Scylla  would 
never  have  touched  the  tragic  buskin  7  had  not  love 
caused  her  to  sever  her  father's  lock.  You  who 
read  of  Electra  and  crazed  Orestes  are  reading  of 
the  guilt  of  Aegisthus  and  Tyndareus'  daughter.8 
Why  should  I  tell  of  the  dread  conqueror  9  of  the 
Chimaera  whom  a  deceitful  hostess  brought  near  to 
death  ?  Why  speak  of  Hermione,  why  of  thee, 
maiden  daughter 10  of  Schoeneus,  and  of  thee,u 
priestess  of  Phoebus,  beloved  by  the  Mycenean 

8  Clytaemestra.  9  Bellerophon. 

10  Atalanta.  n  Cassandra. 

83 


OVID 

quid  Danaen  Danaesque  nurum  matremque  Lyaei 

Haemonaque  et  noctes  cui  coiere  duae  ? 
quid  Peliae  generum,  quidThesea,  quique l  Pelasgum 

Iliacam  tetigit  de  rate  primus  humum  ? 
405  hue  lole  Pyrrhique  parens,  hue  Herculis  uxor, 

hue  accedat  Hylas  Iliacusque  puer. 
tempore  deficiar,  tragicos  si  persequar  ignes, 
vixque  meus  capiet  nomina  nuda  liber. 
est  et  in  obscenos  commixta  2  tragoedia  risus, 
410      multaque  praeteriti  verba  pudoris  habet ; 
nee  nocet  auctori,  mollem  qui  fecit  Achillem, 

infregisse  suis  fortia  facta  modis. 
iunxit  Aristides  Milesia  crimina  secum, 

pulsus  Aristides  nee  tamen  urbe  sua  est. 
415  nee  qui  descripsit  corrumpi  semina  matrum, 

Eubius,  impurae  conditor  historiae, 
nee  qui  composuit  nuper  Sybaritica,  fugit, 

nee  qui  concubitus  non  tacuere  suos. 
suntque  ea  doctorum  monumentis  mixta  3  virorum, 
420      muneribusque  ducum  publica  facta  patent, 
neve  peregrinis  tan  turn  defendar  ab  armis, 

et  Romanus  habet  multa  iocosa  liber, 
utque  suo  Martem  cecinit  gravis  Ennius  ore — 

Ennius  ingenio  maximus,  arte  rudis — 
425  explicat  ut  causas  rapidi  Lucretius  ignis, 
casurumque  triplex  vaticinatur  opus, 

1  quidve  vel  quisve  corr.  Ehwald 
2  deflexa  8  saxa  vel  texta 


1  Agamemnon.  2  Andromeda. 

8  Semele,  mother  of  Bacchus. 
4  Alcmena.  6  Admetus. 

6  I'rotesilaus.  7  Deidamia. 

8  Dejanira.  °  Ganymede. 

84 


TRISTIA,  II.  401-426 

leader  l  ?  Why  of  Danae  and  of  Danae's  daughter- 
in-law,2  of  the  mother  3  of  Lyaeus,  of  Haemon,  and 
of  her 4  for  whom  two  nights  combined  ?  Why 
speak  of  Pelias'  son-in-law,6  of  Theseus,  and  of  him  6 
who  first  of  the  Pelasgians  touched  the  soil  of  Ilium  ? 
To  these  add  lole,  and  the  mother 7  of  Pyrrhus, 
the  wife  8  of  Hercules,  Hylas,  and  the  Ilian  boy.9 
Time  will  fail  if  I  tell  all  the  loves  of  tragedy,  and 
my  book  will  scarce  hold  the  bare  names. 

409  Xhere  is  too  a  tragedy  involved  in  coarse 
laughter,  containing  many  terms  of  shamelessness  ; 
and  the  author  10  who  depicted  Achilles  tender  with 
love  does  not  suffer  for  having  weakened  by  his  verses 
deeds  of  valour.  Aristides  connected  the  vices  of 
Miletus  with  himself,  yet  Aristides  was  not  driven 
from  his  own  city.  Neither  Eubius,  who  described 
the  destruction  of  the  mother's  seed,  the  composer 
of  a  foul  tale,  nor  he u  who  recently  wrote  the 
Sybaritica,  were  exiled,  nor  those  who  have  not 
concealed  their  own  erotic  adventures.  And  those 
things  exist  among  the  memorials  of  learned  men 
and  through  the  gifts  of  our  leaders  have  become 
public  property  open  to  all.12 

421  And  I  need  not  defend  myself  with  foreign 
arms  only,  for  Roman  books  also  contain  much  that 
is  frivolous.  Though  Ennius  lent  his  lips  to  the 
serious  strains  of  war — Ennius  mighty  in  genius,  rude 
in  art — though  Lucretius  sets  forth  the  causes  of 
scorching  flame  and  prophesies  the  destruction  of 

10  Unknown.     The  theme  was  probably  Achilles'  love  for 
Patroclus. 

11  Hemitheon. 

12  i.e.   such   compositions   may   be  found  in  the  public 
libraries. 

85 


OVID 

sic  sua  lascivo  cantata  est  saepe  Catullo 

femina,  cui  falsum  Lesbia  nomen  erat ; 
nee  contentus  ea,  multos  vulgavit  amores, 
430      in  quibus  ipse  suum  fassus  adulterium  est. 
par  fuit  exigui  similisque  licentia  Calvi, 

detexit  variis  qui  sua  furta l  modis. 
quid  referam  Ticidae,  quid  Memmi  carmen,  apud 

quos 

rebus  adest  nomen  nominibusque  pudor  ? 
435  Cinna   quoque    his   comes   est,   Cinnaque   procacior 

Anser, 

et  leve  Cornifici  parque  Catonis  opus, 
et  quorum  libris  modo  dissimulata  Perillae,2 
nomine,  nunc  legitur  dicta,  Metelle,  tuo. 
is  quoque,  Phasiacas  Argon  qui  duxit  in  undas, 
440      non  potuit  Veneris  furta  tacere  suae. 

nee  minus  Hortensi,  nee  sunt  minus  improba  Servi 

carmina.     quis  dubitet  nomina  lanta  sequi  ? 
vertit  Aristiden  Sisenna,  nee  obfuit  illi 

historiae  turpis  inseruisse  iocos. 
445  non  fuit  opprobrio  celebrasse  Lycorida  Gallo, 

sed  linguam  nimio  non  tenuisse  mero. 
credere  iuranti  durum  putat  esse  Tibullus, 

sic  etiam  de  se  quod  neget  ilia  viro. 
fallere  custodes  idem  3  docuisse  fatetur, 
450      seque  sua  miserum  nunc  ait  arte  premi. 

saepe,  velut  gemmam  dominae  signumve  probaret, 
per  causam  meminit  se  tetigisse  manum  ; 

1  facta  a  per  illos :   Perillae  r 

8  custodem  tandem  (vel  demum)  corr.  Francius 


1  One  of  these  was  Ticidas,  cf.  Apuleius,  Apol.  10. 
2  Sec  Index  s.v.  Perilla. 

86 


TRISTIA,  II.  427-452 

three  elements,  yet  wanton  Catullus  sang  oft  of  her 
who  was  falsely  called  Lesbia,  and  not  content  with 
her  he  noised  abroad  many  other  loves  in  which  he 
admitted  his  own  intrigues.  Equal  in  degree  and 
of  the  same  kind  was  the  licence  of  diminutive 
Calvus,  who  revealed  his  own  love  adventures  in 
various  metres.  Why  allude  to  the  verse  of  Ticidas 
or  of  Memmius,  in  whom  things  are  named — with 
names  devoid  of  shame  ?  With  them  Cinna  too 
belongs  and  Anser,  more  wanton  than  Cinna,  and  the 
light  poems  of  Cornificius  and  of  Cato,  and  those  *  in 
whose  books  she  who  was  but  recently  hidden  be- 
neath the  name  of  Perilla  2  is  now  found  called  after 
thy  name,  Metellus.  He,3  too,  who  guided  the 
Argo  to  the  waters  of  Phasis,  could  not  keep  silent 
about  his  own  adventures  in  love.  Hortensius' 
verses  and  those  of  Servius  are  not  less  wanton. 
Who  would  hesitate  to  imitate  these  mighty  names  ? 
Sisenna  translated  Aristides  and  was  not  harmed  for 
weaving  in  the  tale  coarse  jests.  It  was  no  reproach 
to  Gallus  that  he  gave  fame  to  Lycoris,  but  that 
from  too  much  wine  he  did  not  restrain  his  tongue. 
Tibullus  4  thinks  it  hard  to  believe  his  lady  under 
oath  because  she  makes  the  same  denials  about 
himself  to  her  lord.  He  admits,  too,  teaching  her 
how  to  deceive  her  guard,  saying  that  he  is  now  in 
his  wretchedness  overcome  by  his  own  ruse.  Often 
on  the  pretext  of  trying  the  gem  and  seal  of  his 
mistress  he  recalls  that  he  touched  her  Ijand ;  he 

8  Varro  of  A  tax,  who  wrote  an  Argonautica. 

4  In  this  passage  (through  v.  460)  Ovid  paraphrases  parts 
of  Tibull.  i.  5  and  i.  6  in  which  the  poet  becomes  the  victim 
at  the  hands  of  his  faithless  Delia  of  the  very  deceits  he  had 
taught  her. 

87 


OVID 

utque  refert,  digitis  saepe  est  nutuque  locutus, 

et  tacitam  mensae  duxit  in  orbe  notam  ; 
455  et  quibus  e  sucis  abeat  de  corpore  livor, 

impresso  fieri  qui  solet  ore,  docet : 
denique  ab  incauto  nimium  petit  ille  marito, 

se  quoque  uti  servet,  peccet  ut  ilia  minus, 
scit,  cui  latretur,  cum  solus  obambulet,  ipsas l 
460      cur  2  totiens  clausas  excreet  ante  fores, 
multaque  dat  furti  talis  praecepta  docetquc 

qua  nuptae  possint  fallere  ab  arte  viros. 
non  fuit  hoc  illi  fraudi,  legiturque  Tibullus 

et  placet,  et  iam  te  principe  notus  erat. 
465  invenies  eadem  blandi  praecepta  Properti : 

destrictus  minima  nee  tamen  ille  nota  est. 
his  ego  successi,  quoniam  praestantia  candor 

nomina  vivorum  dissimulare  iubet. 
non  timui,  fateor,  ne,  qua  tot  iere  carinae, 
470      naufraga  servatis  omnibus  una  foret. 

sunt  aliis  scriptae,  quibus  alea  luditur,  artes  : — 

hoc  est  ad  nostros  non  leve  crimen  avos — 
quid  valeant  tali,  quo  possis  plurima  iactu 

1  ipse  corr.  Owen  2  cui  vel  qui :  cur  5" 


1  Perhaps  quis  for  cur  (ALW) :    "  who  is  coughing,  etc.'* 
Of.  Tib.  i.  5.  74  f. 

2  i.e.  Tibullus  was  expert  in  detecting  the  presence  of  a 
rival. 

«  About  26  B.C. 

4  Lines  4-71-482  are  obscure  because  Ovid,  writing  for 
readers  familiar  with  the  subject,  uses  technical  terms  and 
gives  only  a  hint  or  two  to  indicate  each  game.  Even 
with  the  help  of  the  full  evidence  which  has  been  collected 
in  such  handbooks  as  Marquardt's  Privatlfben  der  Romer, 
ii.  pp.  855  ff.,  and  Becker-G5ll,  Gallus,  iii.  pp.  455-480, 
these  games  are  far  from  being  fully  understood.  Moreover 
88 


TRISTIA,  II.  453-473 

tells  how  ofttimes  he  spoke  by  means  of  his  fingers 
or  by  nods  and  drew  inarticulate  marks  upon  the 
table's  round  ;  and  he  teaches  what  lotions  cause  to 
vanish  from  the  body  the  bruises  which  are  often 
caused  by  the  mouth's  imprint :  at  last  he  prays  her 
all  too  careless  partner  to  watch  him  also  that  so 
her  sins  may  be  less  frequent.  He  knows  who 
causes  the  barking,  as  a  man  strolls  alone  before 
the  house,  why1  there  is  so  much  coughing  just 
before  the  closed  door.2  He  gives  teachings  of 
many  sorts  for  such  an  intrigue,  showing  brides  by 
what  arts  ladies  can  deceive  their  lords.  This  did  not 
injure  him,  for  Tibullus  is  still  read  with  favour ;  he 
was  famous  when  thou  wert  first  called  prince.3 

465  Thou  wilt  find  the  same  teachings  in  alluring 
Propertius  ;  yet  not  the  least  shame  has  touched 
him.  I  was  their  successor,  for  generosity  bids  me 
withhold  the  names  of  prominent  living  men.  I 
feared  not,  I  admit,  that  where  so  many  barks  plied, 
one  only  would  be  wrecked  while  all  the  rest  were 
safe. 

471  Others  have  written  of  the  arts  of  playing  at 
dice4 — this  was  no  light  sin  in  the  eyes  of  our 
ancestors — what  is  the  value  of  the  tali?  with  what 

the  text  is  not  certain  in  vv.  474,  479.  I  have  appended  notes 
based  on  such  information  as  we  have. 

6  Roman  dice  were  of  two  sorts  :  the  tali,  made  from 
bones  of  small  animals  and  other  materials,  with  four  long 
faces,  two  of  which  were  broad  (numbered  3,  4),  two  narrow 
(1,  6);  and  the  tesserae,  cubical  and  marked  in  the  same 
way  as  our  dice.  The  highest  throw  with  the  tali  was  the 
Venus  (1,  3,  4,  6),  the  lowest  the  Canis  (four  aces.)  Three 
(or  two)  tesserae,  were  usually  employed,  but  we  have  no 
trustworthy  information  concerning  the  highest  and  lowest 
throws. 

89 


OVID 

figere,1  damnosos  effugiasque  canes  ; 
475  tessera  quos  habeat  numeros,  distante  vocato 
mittere  quo  deceat,  quo  dare  missa  modo  ; 
discolor  ut  recto  grassetur  limite  miles, 

cum  medius  gemino  calculus  hoste  perit, 
ut  bellare  2  sequens  3  sciat  et  revocare  priorem, 
480      nee  tuto  fugiens  incomitatus  eat ; 

parva  sit  ut  ternis4  instructa  tabella  lapillis, 

in  qua  vicisse  est  continuasse  suos  ; 
quique    alii    lusus — neque    enim    nunc    persequar 

omnes — 
perdere,  rein  caram,  tempora  nostra  solent. 

1  fingere 

2  mare  (vel  mage  vel  male)  velle  c.orr.  Vogel       3  sequi 
4  sed  uternis  (vel  internis  vel  interius)  corr.  Ehwald 


1  This  probably  refers  to  the  game  called  ir\€t<TTofto\lv8a 
(cf.  plurlma  iactu  and  valeanl)  in  which  the  highest  throw 
depended  on  the  total  number  of  units,  cf.  Pollux,  ix.  95  and 
117.     Figere  (fingere?)  is  a  technical  term  not  occurring 
elsewhere. 

2  Numeros  seems  to  refer,  not  to  the  numbers  on  the  dice, 
but  to  the  significance  of  these  numbers  in  the  game — the 
44  count." 

8  In  475-476  some  scholars  (e.g.  Goll,  Gallus,  p.  475) 
find  a  reference  to  the  game  called  duodecim  scripta,  which 
was  in  some  respects  like  backgammon.  It  was  played 
on  a  board  with  12  lines  (duodecim  scripta)  with  15  pieces 
on  a  side  which  were  moved  forwards  and  backwards  accord- 
ing to  the  throws  of  the  dice.  But  it  is  more  probable  that 
this  couplet  (and  also  Ars  amat.  iii.  355-356)  refer  to  a  game 
in  which  there  were  several  aides  or  contestants.  Each 
player  had  to  decide  at  the  throw  of  the  dice  which  side  or 
player  to  44 join"  (subire),  which  to  '*  challenge  (=vocare, 
provocare),  cf.  Brandt  on  Ars  amat.  353  f.,  205.  As  in 
duod.  script,  the  moves  were  conditioned  by  the  throws 

90 


TRISTIA,  II.  474-484 

throw  one  can  make  the  highest  point,1  avoiding 
the  ruinous  dogs  ;  how  the  tessera  is  counted,2  and 
when  the  opponent  is  challenged,  how  it  is  fitting 
to  throw,  how  to  move  according  to  the  throws  ;  3 
how  the  variegated  soldier  steals  to  the  attack  along 
the  straight  path  when  the  piece  between  two 
enemies  is  lost,  and  how  he  understands  warfare  by 
pursuit  and  how  to  recall  the  man  before  him  and 
to  retreat  in  safety  not  without  escort  ; 4  how  a 
small  board  is  provided  with  three  men  on  a  side 
and  victory  lies  in  keeping  one's  men  abreast ;  5 
and  the  other  games — I  will  not  now  describe  them 
all — which  are  wont  to  waste  that  precious  thing, 
our  time. 

(dare  mlssa).  I  take  distante  vocato,  a  phrase  which  has 
given  rise  to  many  conjectures,  as  referring  to  the  "challeng- 
ing "  of  an  adversary  or  side. 

4  Vv.  477-480  refer  to  the  ludus  latrunculorum,  a  game 
in  some  respects  resembling  chess  but  on  the  whole  more 
like  draughts.     It  was  played  with  30  pieces  on  each  side 
on   a   board   marked   in   squares.     At   least   two   kinds  of 
pieces  can  be  distinguished:    latrones  (bdlatores,  milites?), 
*|  officers,"  and  others  called  collectively  mandra,  "herd," 
"  drove,"   i.e.   "  pawns  "   (?).     Some  scholars  consider  the 
milites    to    have   been    diiferent   from    the    latrones.     The 
pieces  or  men  were  white,  black,  or  (more  commonly  in  the 
case  of  the  latrones)  variegated.     Some  (the  latrones  ?)  had 
greater  freedom  of  movement  (vagi)  than  others  (ordinarii) 
but  the  only  moves  definitely  known  were  straight  forward 
and  backward.      Some    pieces  could  be  checkmated  and 
these  were  then  called  inciti,  and  men  could  be  "  taken  " 
by  being  caught  between  two  opponents.     It  was  important 
to  advance  men  in  pairs  so  as  to  support  each  other. 

5  This  game  seems  to  have  resembled  a  game  of  draughts 
played  with  few  men.     It  is  mentioned  also  in  Ars  amat.  iii. 
365  f.  and  Isidor.  Orig.  xviii.  64.    In  the  German  Miihlespiel 
(a  sort  of  draughts)  the  detail  of  keeping  three  men  close 
together  in  a  line  is  also  present. 

91 


OVID 

485  ecce  canit  formas  alius  iactusque  pilarum, 

hie  artem  nandi  praecipit,  ille  trochi. 
composita  est  aliis  fucandi  cura  coloris  ; 

hie  epulis  leges  hospitioque  dedit ; 
alter  humum,  de  qua  fingantur  pocula,  monstrat, 
490      quaeque,  docet,  liquido  testa  sit  apta  mero. 
talia  luduntur  fumoso  mense  Decembri, 

quae  damno  nulli  compos uisse  fuit. 
his  ego  deceptus  non  tristia  carmina  feci, 

sed  tristis  nostros  poena  secuta  iocos. 
495  denique  nee  video  tot  de  scribentibus  unum, 
quern  sua  perdiderit  Musa  ;  repertus  ego. 
quid,  si  scripsissem  mimos  obscena  iocantes, 
qui  semper  vetiti l  crimen  amoris  habent, 
in  quibus  assidue  cultus  procedit  adulter, 
500      verbaque  dat  stulto  callida  nupta  viro  ? 
nubilis  hos  virgo  matronaque  virque  puerque 
spectat,  et  ex  magna  parte  senatus  adest. 
nee  satis  incestis  temerari  vocibus  aures  ; 
adsuescunt  oculi  multa  pudenda  pati  : 
505  cumque  fefellit  amans  aliqua  novitate  maritum, 

plauditur  et  magno  palma  favore  datur  ; 
quodque 2  minus  prodest,  scaena 3  est  lucrosa  poetae, 

tantaque  non  parvo  crimina  praetor  emit, 
inspice  ludorum  sumptus,  Auguste,  tuorum  : 
610      empta  tibi  magno  talia  multa  leges. 

haec  tu  spectasti  spectandaque  saepe  dedisti — 
maiestas  adeo  comis  ubique  tua  est — 

1  victi  vel  iunctum :  vetiti  r 
2  quoque  3  poena  :  scaena  Heumann 

1  The  officials  in  charge  of  the  games  (aediles,  praetors) 
paid  most  of  the  expenses. 

92 


TRISTIA,  II.  485-512 

485  See,  another  tells  in  verse  of  the  various  forms  of 
balls  and  the  way  they  are  thrown  ;  this  one  instructs 
in  the  art  of  swimming,  that  in  the  art  of  the  hoop. 
Others  have  composed  works  on  tinting  the  com- 
plexion, another  has  laid  down  rules  for  feasts  and 
entertaining ;  still  another  describes  the  clay  from 
which  bowls  are  fashioned,  teaching  what  jar  is 
adapted  to  the  clear  wine.  Such  playful  verses  as 
these  are  written  in  smoky  December,  but  nobody 
has  been  ruined  for  composing  them.  Beguiled  by 
such  as  these  I  wrote  verse  lacking  in  seriousness, 
but  a  serious  penalty  has  befallen  my  jests.  In 
fine,  though  so  many  have  written,  I  see  not  one 
who  has  been  ruined  by  his  own  muse  ;  I  am  the 
one  who  has  been  sought  out. 

497  What  if  I  had  written  foul -jesting  mimes 
which  always  contain  the  sin  of  forbidden  love,  in 
which  constantly  a  well-dressed  adulterer  appears 
and  the  artful  wife  fools  her  stupid  husband  ?  These 
are  viewed  by  the  marriageable  maiden,  the  wife, 
the  husband,  and  the  child ;  even  the  senate  in 
large  part  is  present.  Nor  is  it  enough  that  the 
ear  is  outraged  with  impure  words  ;  the  eyes  grow 
accustomed  to  many  shameful  sights,  and  when 
the  lover  has  deceived  the  husband  by  some  novel 
trick,  there  is  applause  and  he  is  presented  amid 
great  favour  with  the  palm.  Because  the  stage  is 
not  moral,  it  is  profitable  to  the  poet,  and  these  great 
immoralities  are  bought  at  no  small  price  by  the 
praetor.1  Run  over  the  expenses  of  thine  own 
games,  Augustus,  and  thou  wilt  read  of  many  things 
of  this  sort  that  cost  thee  dear.  These  thou  hast 
thyself  viewed  and  oft  presented  to  the  view  of 
others — so  benign  is  thy  majesty  everywhere — 

93 


OVID 

luminibusque  tuis,  totus  quibus  utitur  orbis, 

scaenica  vidisti  lentus  adulteria. 
615  scribere  si  fas  est  imitantes  turpia  mimos, 

materiae  minor  est  debita  poena  meae. 
an  genus  hoc  script!  faciunt  sua  pulpita  tutum, 

quodque  licet,  mimis  scaena  licere  dedit  ? 
et  mea  sunt  populo  saltata  poemata  saepe, 
520      saepe  oculos  etiam  detinuere  tuos. 

scilicet  in  domibus  nostris l  ut  prisca  virorum 

artificis  fulgent  corpora  picta  manu, 
sic  quae  concubitus  varios  venerisque  figuras 

exprimat,  est  aliquo  parva  tabella  loco. 
525  utque  sedet  vultu  fassus  Telamonius  iram, 

inque  oculis  facinus  barbara  mater  habet, 
sic  madidos  siccat  digitis  Venus  uda  capillos, 

et  modo  maternis  tecta  videtur  aquis. 
bella  sonant  alii  telis  instructa  cruentis, 
530      parsque  tui  generis,  pars  tua  facta  canunt. 
invida  me  spatio  natura  coercuit  arto, 

ingenio  vires  exiguasque  dedit. 
et  tamen  ille  tuae  felix  Aeneidos  auctor 

contulit  in  Tyrios  arma  virumque  toros, 
535  nee  legitur  pars  ulla  magis  de  corpore  toto, 

quam  non  legitimo  foedere  iunctus  amor. 
Phyllidis  hie  idem  teneraeque  Amaryllidis  ignes 

bucolicis  iuvenis  luserat  ante  modis. 
nos  quoque  iam  pridem  scripto  peccavimus  isto  : 
540      supplicium  patitur  non  nova  culpa  novum  ; 
carminaque  edideram,  cum  te  delicta  notantem 

praeterii  totiens  inreprehensus 2  eques. 

1  vestris  corr.  r  2  inrequietus 

1  Ajax.  2  Medea. 

a  Apelles'  famous  picture  of  Venus  rising  from  the  sea. 

94 


TRISTIA,  II.  513-542 

and  with  thine  eyes,  by  which  the  whole  world 
profits,  thou  hast  gazed  undisturbed  at  these  adul- 
teries of  the  stage.  If  'tis  right  to  compose  mimes 
that  copy  vice,  to  my  themes  a  smaller  penalty  is 
due. 

517  Can  it  be  that  this  type  of  writing  is  rendered 
safe  by  the  stage  to  which  it  belongs — that  the  licence 
of  the  mimes  has  been  granted  by  the  theatre  ? 
My  poems  too  have  often  been  presented  to  the 
people  with  dancing,  often  they  have  even  beguiled 
thine  own  eyes.  Surely  in  our  houses,  even  as  figures 
of  old  heroes  shine,  painted  by  an  artist's  hand,  so 
in  some  place  a  small  tablet  depicts  the  varying  unions 
and  forms  of  love  ;  there  sits  not  only  the  Tela- 
monian l  with  features  confessing  wrath  and  the 
barbarian  mother  2  with  crime  in  her  eyes,  but  Venus 
as  well,  wringing  her  damp  hair  with  her  hands  and 
seeming  barely  covered  by  her  maternal  waves.3 
Some  sing  of  the  roar  of  war  and  its  bloody  weapons, 
some  of  the  deeds  of  thy  race,  and  some  of  thine 
own.  As  for  me — grudging  nature  has  confined  me 
within  a  narrow  space,  granting  me  but  meagre 
powers.  And  yet  the  blessed  author  of  thy  Aeneid 
brought  his  "  arms  and  the  man  "  to  a  Tyrian  couch, 
and  no  part  of  the  whole  work  is  more  read  than  that 
union  of  illicit  love.  The  same  man  had  written  as 
a  youth  playful  verse  of  the  passion  of  Phyllis  and 
tender  Amaryllis — all  in  pastoral  strains.4  Long  ago 
I  too  sinned  in  that  style  of  composition — thus  a  fault 
not  new  is  suffering  a  new  penalty — and  I  had  pub- 
lished verse  when  thou  wert  censuring  our  sins  and 
I  passed  thee  so  many  times,  a  knight  uncriticized.6 

4  The  Eclogues.  6  Cf.  v.  90. 

95 


OVID 

ergo  quae  iuvenis  mihi  non  nocitura  putavi 

scripta  parum  prudens,  nunc  nocuere  seni. 
545  sera  redundavit  veteris  vindicta  libelli, 

distat  et  a  merit!  tempore  poena  sui. 
ne  tamen  omne  meum  credas  opus  esse  remissum, 

saepe  dedi  nostrae  grandia  vela  rati. 
sex  ego  Fastorum  scrips!  totidemque  libellos, 
550      cumque  stio  finem  mense  volumen  habet, 
idque  tuo  nuper  scriptum  sub  nomine,  Caesar, 

et  tibi  sacratum  sors  mea  rupit  opus  ; 
et  dedimus  tragicis  scriptum  regale  cothurnis, 

quaeque  gravis  debet  verba  cothurnus  habet ; 
555  dictaque  sunt  nobis,  quamvis  manus  ultima  coeptis 

defuit,  in  facies  corpora  versa  novas, 
atque  utinam  revoces  animum  paulisper  ab  ira, 

et  vacuo  iubeas  hinc  tibi  pauca  legi, 
pauca,  quibus  prima  surgens  ab  origine  mundi 
560      in  tua  deduxi  tempora,  Caesar,  opus  ! 

aspicies,  quantum  dederis  mihi  pectoris  ipse, 

quoque  favore  animi  teque  tuosque  canam. 
non  ego  mordaci  destrinxi  carmine  quemquam. 

nee  meus  ullius  crimina  versus  habet. 
565  candidus  a  salibus  suffusis  felle  refugi  : 

ntilla  venenato  littera  mixta  ioco  est. 
inter  tot  populi,  tot  scriptis,  milia  nostri, 

quern  mea  Calliope  laeserit,  unus  ero. 
non  igitur  nostris  ullum  gaudere  Quiritem 
570      auguror,  at  multos  indoluisse  malis  ; 

nee  mihi  credibile  est,  quemquam  insultasse  iacenti 

gratia  candor!  si  qua  relata  meo  est. 

1  The  extant  edition  of  the  Fasti  has  only  six  books,  dedi- 
cated to  German  icus,  and  there  is  no  good  evidence  that 
Ovid  wrote  more.  Those  who  translate  sex  .  .  .  totidemque 
"  twelve  "  assume  that  Ovid  wrote  twelve  books. 

*  The  Medea,  a  tragedy,  not  extant. 
Qfi 


TRISTIA,  II.  543-572 

Thus  the  writings  which  in  my  youth  all  thought- 
less I  supposed  would  harm  me  not,  have  harmed 
me  now  that  I  am  old.  Late  and  overfull  is  the 
vengeance  for  that  early  book,  distant  is  the  penalty 
from  the  time  of  the  sin. 

647  Yet  think  not  all  my  work  trivial  ;  oft  have  I 
set  grand  sails  upon  my  bark.  Six  of  the  Fasti  I  have 
written  in  six  books  each  ending  with  its  own  month. 
This  work  did  I  recently  compose,  Caesar,  under  thy 
name,  dedicated  to  thee,1  but  my  fate  has  broken  it 
off.  And  I  wrote  a  poem  of  kings  for  the  tragic  buskin, 
having  the  style  which  the  serious  buskin  demands.2 
I  sang  also,  though  my  attempt  lacked  the  final 
touch,  of  bodies  changed  into  new  forms.3  Would 
that  thou  mightest  recall  thy  temper  awhile  from 
wrath  and  bid  a  few  lines  of  this  be  read  to  thee 
when  thou  art  at  leisure,  the  few  lines  4  in  which 
after  beginning  with  the  earliest  origin  of  the  world 
I  have  brought  the  work  to  thy  times,  Caesar  !  Thou 
wilt  see  how  much  heart  thou  hast  thyself  given 
me,  with  what  warmth  I  sing  of  thee  and  thine. 
1  have  never  injured  anybody  with  a  mordant 
poem,  my  verse  contains  charges  against  nobody. 
Ingenuous  I  have  shunned  wit  steeped  in  gall — 
not  a  letter  of  mine  is  dipped  in  poisoned  jest. 
Amid  all  the  myriads  of  our  people,  many  as  are 
my  writings,  I  shall  be  the  only  one  whom  my  own 
Calliope  has  injured.  No  citizen  then,  1  feel  sure, 
rejoices  in  my  woes,  but  many  grieve.  Nor  can  I 
believe  that  anyone  has  mocked  my  fall,  if  any 
indulgence  has  been  granted  to  my  open  heart. 

8  The  Metamorphoses. 

4  Cf.    Mftam.    xv.    745-870,   where    Julius    Caesai    arid 
Augustus  are  praised. 

H  97 


OVID 

his,  precor,  atque  aliis  possint  tua  numina  flecti, 

o  pater,  o  patriae  cura  salusque  tuae  ! 
675  non  ut  in  Ausoniam  redeam,  nisi  forsitan  olim, 

cum  longo  poenae  tempore  victus  eris  ; 
tutius  exilium  pauloque  quietius  oro, 
ut  par  delicto  sit  mea  poena  suo. 


98 


TRISTIA,  II.  573-578 

May  this,  I  pray,  and  other  things  have  power  to 
bend  thy  will,  O  father,  O  protector  and  salvation 
of  thy  native  land  :  not  that  I  may  return  to  Ausonia, 
unless  perchance  some  day  thou  shalt  be  overborne 
by  the  length  of  my  punishment ;  I  only  beg  a  safer, 
a  more  peaceful  place  of  exile,  slight  though  the 
change  be,  that  the  punishment  may  match  my 
wrongdoing. 


99 


LIBER  TERTIUS 

I. 

"  Missus  in  hanc  venio  timide  liber  exulis  urbem  : 

da  placidam  fesso,  lector  amice,  manum  ; 
neve  reformida,  ne  sim  tibi  forte  pudori : 

nullus  in  hac  charta  versus  amare  docet. 
5  haec  domini  fortuna  mei  est,  ut  debeat  illam 

infelix  nullis  dissimulare  iocis. 
id  quoque,  quod  viridi  quondam  male  lusit  in  aevo, 

heu  nimium  sero  damnat  et  odit  opus  ! 
inspice  quid  portem  :  nihil  hie  nisi  triste  videbis, 
10      carmine  temporibus  conveniente  suis. 
clauda  quod  alter  no  subsidunt  carmina  versu, 

vel  pedis  hoc  ratio,  vel  via  longa  facit ; 
quod  neque  sum  cedro  flavus  l  nee  pumice  levis, 

erubui  domino  cultior  esse  meo  ; 
15  littera  sufFusas  quod  habet  maculosa  lituras, 

laesit  opus  lacrimis  ipse  poeta  suum. 
siqua  videbuntur  casu  non  dicta  Latine, 

in  qua  scribebat,  barbara  terra  fuit. 
dicite,  lectores,  si  non  grave,  qua  sit  eundum, 
20      quasque  petam  sedes  hospes  in  urbe  liber/' 
1  fulvus 

1  The  Are  amatoria. 

8  The  elegiac  couplet  is  often  spoken  of  as  **  lame  "  because 
of  the  unequal  length  of  the  verses. 
100 


BOOK  III 
I.  PROEM 

"  Though  sent  to  this  city  I  come  in  fear,  an 
exile's  book.  Stretch  forth  a  kindly  hand  to  me 
in  my  weariness,  friendly  reader,  and  fear  not  that 
I  may  perchance  bring  shame  upon  you  ;  not  a 
line  on  this  paper  teaches  love.  Such  is  my  master's 
fate  that  the  wretched  man  ought  not  to  conceal  it 
with  any  jests.  Even  that  work l  which  once  was  his 
ill-starred  amusement  in  the  green  of  youth,  too 
late,  alas  !  he  condemns  and  hates.  Examine  what 
I  bring  :  you  will  see  nothing  here  except  sadness, 
and  the  verse  befits  its  own  state.  If  the  lame 
couplets  halt  in  alternate  verses,  'tis  due  to  the 
metre's  nature  2  or  to  the  length  of  the  journey  ; 
if  I  am  not  golden  with  oil  of  cedar  nor  smoothed 
with  the  pumice,  'tis  because  I  blushed  to  be  better 
dressed  than  my  master  ;  if  the  letters  are  spotted 
and  blurred  with  erasures,  'tis  because  the  poet 
with  tears  has  injured  his  own  work.  If  any  ex- 
pressions perchance  shall  seem  not  Latin,  the  land 
wherein  he  wrote  was  a  barbarian  land.  *Tell  me, 
readers,  if  it  is  not  a  trouble,  whither  I  ought  to 
go,  what  abode  I,  a  book  from  foreign  lands,  should 
seek  in  the  city." 

101 


OVID 

haec  ubi  sum  furtim  lingua  titubante  locutus, 

qui  mihi  monstraret,  vix  fuit  unus,  iter. 
"  di  tibi  dent,  nostro  quod  non  tribuere  poetae, 

molliter  in  patria  vivere  posse  tua. 
25  due  age  !  namque  sequar,  quamvis  terraque  marique 

longinquo  referam  lassus  ab  orbe  pedem." 
paruit,  et  ducens  "  haec  sunt  fora  Caesaris,"  inquit, 

"  haec  est  a  sacris  quae  via  nomen  habet, 
hie  locus  est  Vestae,  qui  Pallada  servat  et  ignem, 
30      haec  fuit  antiqui  regia  parva  Numae." 

inde  petens  dextram  "  porta  est  "  ait  "  ista  Palati, 
hie  Stator,  hoc  primum  condita  Roma  loco  est." 
singula  dum  miror,  video  fulgentibus  armis 

conspicuos  postes  tectaque  digna  deo. 
35  "  et  lovis  haec  "  dixi  "  domus  est  ?  "  quod  ut  esse 

putarem, 

augurium  menti  querna  corona  dabat. 
cuius  ut  accepi  dominum,  "  non  fallimur,"  inquam, 

"  et  magni  verum  est  hanc  lovis  esse  domum. 
cur  tamen  opposita  1  velatur  ianua  lauro, 
40      cingit  et  augustas  arbor  opaca  comas  ? 

num  quia  perpetuos  meruit  domus  ista  triumphos, 

an  quia  Leucadio  semper  amata  deo  est  ? 
ipsane  quod  festa  est,  an  quod  facit  omnia  festa  ? 
quam  tribuit  terris,  pacis  an  ista  nota  est  ? 
1  apposita 

1  The  Sacred  Way. 

2  The  temple  of  Vesta  contained  the  Palladium  (image 
of  Pallas)  which  fell  from  heaven  at  Troy. 

8  Jupiter  Stator. 

4  The  Mken  wreath  was  given  to  Augustus  as  saviour  of 
the  citizens,  but  the  oak  was  also  sacred  to  Jove. 

6  i.e.  of  the  oak.  The  laurels  threw  their  foliage  about 
the  oaken  wreath. 

6  Augustus'  house  was  (by  a  decree  of  the  senate)  kept 
102 


TRISTIA,  III.  i.  21-44 

21  When  thus  I  had  spoken  timidly,  with  hesitant 
tongue,  I  found  with  difficulty  just  one  to  show  me 
the  way. 

23  "  May  the  gods  grant  you  what  they  have  not 
vouchsafed  our  poet,  the  power  to  live  at  ease  in 
your  native  land — come,  lead  me  ;  I  will  follow, 
though  by  land  and  sea  I  come  in  weariness  from  a 
distant  world.'* 

27  He  obeyed,  and  as  he  guided  me,  said,  "  This 
is  Caesar's  forum  ;  this  is  the  street  named  from 
the  sacred  rites.1  This  is  the  place  of  Vesta  guard- 
ing Pallas2  and  the  fire,  here  was  once  the  tiny 
palace  of  ancient  Numa.  Then  turning  to  the 
right,  "  That,"  he  said,  "  is  the  gate  of  the  Palatium. 
Here  is  Stator 3 ;  on  this  spot  first  was  Rome 
founded."  While  I  was  marvelling  at  one  thing 
after  another,  I  beheld  doorposts  marked  out  from 
others  by  gleaming  arms  and  a  dwelling  worthy 
of  a  god  ! 

36  "  Is  this  also  Jove's  abode,"  I  said,  and  for 
such  thought  an  oaken  wreath  4  gave  to  my  mind 
the  augury.  And  when  I  learned  its  master,  I 
said,  "  No  error  is  mine  ;  it  is  true  that  this  is  the 
home  of  mighty  Jove.  But  why  is  the  door  screened 
by  the  laurels  before  it,  their  dark  foliage  surround- 
ing the  august  tresses  5  ?  Can  it  be  because  that 
home  has  deserved  unending  triumph  or  because 
it  has  always  been  loved  by  the  Leucadian  6  god  ? 
Is  it  because  the  house  itself  is  full  of  joy  or  because 
it  fills  all  things  with  joy  ?  Is  it  a  mark  of  that 
peace  which  it  has  given  to  the  world  ?  And  as 

continually  adorned  with  oak  and  laurel,  triumphal  insignia. 
His  victory  at  Actium  occurred  near  the  temple  of  Leucadian 
Apollo  and  he  honoured  Apollo  above  all  other  gods. 

103 


OVID 

45  utque  viret  semper  laurus  nee  fronde  caduca 

carpitur,  aeternum  sic  habet  ilia  decus  ? 
causa  superpositae  scripto  est  testata  coronae  : 

servatos  cives  indicat  huius  ope. 
adice  servatis  unum,  pater  optime,  civem, 
50       qui  procul  extreme  pulsus  in  orbe  latet, 
in  quo  poenarum,  quas  se  meruisse  fatetur, 
non  facinus  causam,  sed  suus  error  habet. 
me  miserum  !  vereorque  locum  vereorque  potentem, 

et  quatitur  trepido  littera  nostra  metu. 
55  aspicis  exsangui  chartam  pallere  colore  ? 

aspicis  alternos  intremuisse  pedes  ? 
quandocumque,  precor,  nostro  placere  parent! 

isdem  et l  sub  dominis  aspiciare  domus  !  " 
inde  tenore  pari  gradibus  sublimia  celsis 
60      ducor  ad  intonsi  Candida  templa  dei, 
signa  peregrinis  ubi  sunt  alterna  columnis, 

Belides  et  stricto  barbarus  ense  pater, 
quaeque  viri  docto  veteres  cepere  novique 

pectore,  lecturis  inspicienda  patent. 
65  quaerebam  fratres,  exceptis  scilicet  illis, 
quos  suus  optaret  non  genuisse  pater, 
quaerentem  frustra  custos  e  sedibus  illis 

praepositus  sancto  iussit  abire  loco, 
altera  templa  peto,  vicino  iuncta  theatro  : 
70      haec  quoque  erant  pedibus  non  adeunda  meis. 

1  et  om.  codd.  add.  Itali 

1  i.e.  Augustus  and  his  family. 

2  In  the  portico  of  the  temple  of  Apollo  on  the  Palatine 
(built  by  Augustus)  were  the  figures  of  Danaus  and  his 
daughters. 

3  Augustus  had  established  a  library  in  the  temple  of 
Apollo. 

4  The  other  works  of  Ovid. 

104 


TRISTIA,  III.  i.  45-70 

the  laurel  is  ever  green  with  no  withering  leaves 
to  be  plucked  away,  so  does  that  house  possess  an 
eternal  glory  ? 

47  The  reason  for  the  crowning  wreath  is  shown 
by  an  inscription  :  it  declares  that  by  his  aid  citizens 
have  been  saved.  Add,  O  best  of  fathers,  to  those 
whom  thou  hast  saved  one  citizen  who  far  on  the 
world's  edge  lies  in  forgotten  exile,  the  cause  of 
whose  punishment,  which  he  admits  that  he  has 
deserved,  is  not  a  deed,  but  his  own  mistake. 
Wretched  me  !  I  fear  the  spot,  I  fear  the  man  of 
power,  my  script  wavers  with  shuddering  dread. 
See  you  my  paper  pale  with  bloodless  colour  ?  Sec 
you  each  alternate  foot  tremble  ?  Sometime,  I 
pray,  mayst  thou,  O  palace,  be  reconciled  with  him 
who  fathered  me,  and  may  it  be  his  lot  to  behold 
thee  under  the  same  masters1  !  " 

59  Then  with  even  pace  up  the  lofty  steps  I  was 
conducted  to  the  shining  temple  of  the  unshorn 
god,  where  alternating  with  the  columns  of  foreign 
marble  stand  the  figures  of  the  Belids,2  the  barbarian 
father  with  a  drawn  sword,  and  all  those  things 
which  the  men  of  old  or  of  modern  times  conceived 
in  their  learned  souls  are  free  for  the  inspection 
of  those  who  would  read.3  I  was  seeking  my 
brothers,4  save  those  indeed  whom  their  father 
would  he  had  never  begot,  and  as  I  sought  to  no 
purpose,  from  that  abode  the  guard  who  presides 
over  the  holy  place  commanded  me  to  depart.5 
A  second  temple  I  approached,  one  close  to  a 
theatre  : 6  this  too  might  not  be  visited  by  my  feet. 

6  Ovid's  works  had  been  placed  under  the  ban,  cf.  v.  79. 
6  Augustus  had  founded  another  library  in  the  porticus 
Octavia,  near  the  theatre  of  Marcellus. 

105 


OVID 

nee  me,  quae  doctis  patuerunt  prima  libellis, 

atria  Libertas  tangere  passa  sua  est. 
in  genus  auctoris  miseri  fortuna  redundat, 
et  patimur  nati,  quam  tulit  ipse,  fugam. 
75  forsitan  et  nobis  olim  minus  asper  et  illi 

evictus  longo  tempore  Caesar  erit. 
di,    precor,    atque    adeo — neque    enim    mihi   turba 

roganda  est — 

Caesar,  ades  voto,  maxime  dive,  meo  ! 
interea,  quoniam  static  mihi  publica  clausa  est, 
80      private  liceat  delituisse  loco. 

vos  quoque,  si  fas  est,  confusa  pudore  repulsae 
sumite  plebeiae  carmina  nostra  manus. 

ii. 

Ergo  erat  in  fatis  Scythiam  quoque  visere  nostris, 

quaeque  Lycaonio  terra  sub  axe  iacet ; 
nee  vos,  Pierides,  nee  stirps  Letoia,  vestro 

docta  sacerdoti  turba  tulistis  opem. 
5  nee  mihi,  quod  lusi  vero1  sine  crimine,  prodest, 

quodque  magis  vita  Musa  iocata2  mea  est, 
plurima  sed  pelago  terraque  pericula  passum 

ustus  ab  assiduo  frigore  Pontus  habet. 
quique  fugax  rerum  securaque  in  otia  natus, 
10      mollis  et  inpatiens  ante  laboris  eram, 

ultima  nunc  patior,  nee  me  mare  portubus  orbum 

perdere,  diversae  nee  potuere  viae  ; 
suffecitque  3  malis  animus  ;  nam  corpus  ab  illo 

accepit  vires  vixque  ferenda  tulit. 

1  vestro  a  iocosa  8  sufficit  atque 

1  The  library  in  the  temple  of  Liberty  was  founded  by 
Asinius  Pollio. 

106 


TRISTIA,  III.  i.  Tl—ii.  14 

Nor  did  Liberty  allow  me  to  touch  her  halls,  the  first 
that  were  opened  to  learned  books.1  The  fate  of 
our  unfortunate  sire  overflows  upon  his  offspring,  and 
we  suffer  at  our  birth  the  exile  which  he  has  borne. 
Perhaps  sometime  both  to  us  and  to  him  Caesar 
conquered  by  long  years  will  be  less  severe.  O 
gods,  or  rather  (for  it  is  not  meet  that  I  should  pray 
to  a  throng),  Caesar,  mightiest  of  gods,  hearken  to 
my  prayer  !  In  the  meanwhile,  since  a  public  resting- 
place  is  closed  to  me,  may  it  be  granted  me  to  lie 
hidden  in  some  private  spot.  You  too,  hands  of 
the  people,  receive,  if  you  may,  our  verses  dismayed 
by  the  shame  of  their  rejection. 


II.  BETTER  DEATH  THAN  EXILE 

So  then  'twas  fated  for  me  to  visit  even  Scythia, 
the  land  that  lies  beneath  the  Lycaonian  pole ; 
neither  you,  ye  learned  throng  of  Pierians,  nor  you, 
()  son  of  Leto,  have  aided  your  own  priest.  It 
avails  me  not  that  without  real  guilt  I  wrote  playful 
verse,  that  my  Muse  was  merrier  than  my  life, 
but  many  are  the  perils  by  land  and  sea  that  I 
have  undergone,  and  now  the  Pontus  shrivelled  with 
constant  frost  possesses  me.  I,  who  once  shunned 
affairs,  who  was  born  for  a  care-free  life  of  ease,  who 
was  soft  and  incapable  of  toil,  am  now  suffering 
extremes  ;  no  harbourless  sea,  no  far  journeys  by 
land  have  been  able  to  destroy  me.  And  my  spirit 
has  proved  equal  to  misfortune  ;  for  my  body, 
borrowing  strength  from  that  spirit,  has  endured 
things  scarce  endurable. 

107 


OVID 

15  dum  tamen  et  terris  dubius  iactabar  et  undis, 

fallebat  curas  aegraque  cord  a  labor  : 
ut  via  finita  est  et  opus  requievit  eundi, 
et  poenae  tellus  est  mihi  tacta  meae, 
nil  nisi  flere  libet,  nee  nostro  parcior  imber 
20      lumine,  de  verna  quam  nive  manat  aqua. 
Roma  domusque  subit  desideriumque  locorum, 

quicquid  et  amissa  restat  in  urbe  mei. 
ei  milri,  quod l  totiens  nostri  pulsata  sepulcri 

ianua,  sed  nullo  tempore  aperta  fuit ! 
25  cur  ego  tot  gladios  fugi  totiensque  minata 

obruit  infelix  nulla  procella  caput  ? 
di,  quos  experior  nimium  constanter  iniquos, 

participes  irae  quos  deus  unus  habet, 
exstimulate,  precor,  cessantia  fata  meique 
30      interitus  clausas  esse  vetate  fores  ! 

III. 

Haec  mea  si  casu  miraris  epistula  quare 

alterius  digitis  scripta  sit,  aeger  eram. 
aeger  in  extremis  ignoti  partibus  orbis, 

incertusque  meae  paene  salutis  eram. 
6  quern  mihi  nunc  animum  dira  regione  iacenti 

inter  Sauromatas  esse  Getasque  putes  ? 
nee  caelum  patior,  nee  aquis  adsuevimus  istis, 

terraque  nescio  quo  non  placet  ipsa  modo. 
non  domus  apta  satis,  non  hie  cibus  utilis  aegro, 
10      nullus,  Apollinea  qui  levet  arte  malum, 
non  qui  soletur,  non  qui  labentia  tarde 

tempora  narrando  fallat,  amicus  adest. 

1  quo 

1  Augustus. 
108 


TRISTIA,  III.  n.  15— m.  12 

16  Yet  while  I  was  being  driven  through  the  perils 
of  land  and  wave,  there  was  beguilement  for  my 
cares  and  my  sick  heart  in  the  hardship  ;  now  that 
the  way  has  ended,  the  toil  of  journeying  is  over, 
and  I  have  reached  the  land  of  my  punishment,  I 
care  for  naught  but  weeping ;  from  my  eyes  comes 
as  generous  a  flood  as  that  which  pours  from  the 
snow  in  springtime.  Rome  steals  into  my  thought, 
my  home,  and  the  places  I  long  for,  and  all  that 
part  of  me  that  is  left  in  the  city  I  have  lost.  Ah 
me  !  that  I  have  knocked  so  often  upon  the  door 
of  my  own  tomb  but  it  has  never  opened  to  me  ! 
Why  have  I  escaped  so  many  swords  ?  Why  has 
not  one  of  those  gales  that  threatened  so  often 
overwhelmed  an  ill-starred  head  ?  Ye  gods,  whom 
I  have  found  too  steadily  cruel,  sharers  in  a  wrath 
that  one  god1  feels,  goad  on  my  laggard  fate,  I 
beseech  ye  ;  forbid  the  door  of  my  destruction  to 
be  closed  ! 

III.  To  HIS  WIFE 

If  haply  you  wonder  why  this  letter  of  mine  is 
written  by  another's  fingers,  I  am  ill — ill  in  the 
utmost  part  of  an  unknown  world,  almost  in  doubt 
of  my  recovery.  What  spirit  can  you  think  is  now 
mine,  lying  sick  in  a  hideous  land  among  Sauromatae 
and  Getae  ?  The  climate  I  cannot  endure,  and  I 
have  not  become  used  to  such  water,  and  even  the 
land,  I  know  not  why,  pleases  me  not.  There  is 
no  house  here  well  suited  to  a  sick  man,  no  beneficial 
food  for  him,  none  to  relieve,  with  Apollo's  art, 
his  pain,  no  friend  to  comfort,  none  to  beguile  with 
talk  the  slow-moving  hours.  Aweary  I  lie  among 

109 


OVID 

lassus  in  extremis  iaceo  populisque  locisque, 

et  subit  adfecto  nunc  mihi,  quicquid  abest. 
15  omnia  cum  subeant,  vincis  tamen  omnia,  coniunx, 

et  plus  in  nostro  pectore  parte  tenes. 
te  loquor  absentem,  te  vox  mea  nominat  unam  ; 

nulla  venit  sine  te  nox  mihi,  nulla  dies, 
quin  etiam  sic  me  dicunt  aliena  locutum, 
20      ut  foret  amenti  nomen  in  ore  tuum. 
si  iam  deficiam,  suppressaque  lingua  palato 

vix  instillato  restituenda  mero, 
nuntiet  hue  aliquis  dominam  venisse,  resurgam, 

spesque  tui  nobis  causa  vigoris  erit. 
25  ergo  ego  sum  dubius  vitae,  tu  forsitan  istic 

iucundum  nostri  nescia  tempus  agis  ? 
non  agis,  adfirmo.     liquet  hoc,  carissima,  nobis, 

tempus  agi  sine  me  non  nisi  triste  tibi. 
si  tamen  inplevit  mea  sors,  quos  debuit,  annos, 
30      et  mihi  vivendi  tarn  cito  finis  adest, 

quantum  erat,  o  magni,  morituro  parcere,  divi, 

ut  saltern  patria  contumularer  humo  ? 
vel  poena  in  tempus  mortis  dilata  fuisset, 

vel  praecepisset  mors  properata  fugam. 
35  integer  hanc  potui  nuper  bene  reddere  lucem  ; 

exul  ut  occiderem,  nunc  mihi  vita  data  est. 
tarn  procul  ignotis  igitur  moriemur  in  oris, 

et  fient  ipso  tristia  fata  loco  ; 
nee  mea  consueto  languescent  corpora  lecto, 
40      depositum  nee  me  qui  fleat,  ullus  erit ; 
nee  dominae  lacrimis  in  nostra  cadentibus  ora 

accedent  animae  tempora  parva  meae  ; 

110 


TRISTIA,  III.  in.  13-42 

these  far-away  peoples  in  this  far-away  place,  and 
thoughts  come  to  me  in  my  weakness  of  everything 
that  is  not  here.  All  things  steal  into  my  mind, 
yet  above  all,  you,  my  wife,  and  you  hold  more  than 
half  my  heart.  You  I  address  though  you  are 
absent,  you  alone  my  voice  names  ;  no  night  comes 
to  me  without  you,  no  day.  Nay  more,  they  say 
that  when  I  talked  strange  things,  'twas  so  that 
your  name  was  on  my  delirious  lips.  If  I  were  to 
fail  now  and  my  tongue  cleaving  to  my  palate  were 
scarcely  to  be  revived  by  drops  of  wine,1  let  someone 
announce  that  my  lady  has  come,  I'll  rise,  and  the 
hope  of  you  will  be  the  cause  of  my  strength.  Am 
I  then  uncertain  of  life,  but  are  you  perhaps  passing 
happy  hours  yonder  forgetful  of  me  ?  You  are  not  ; 
I  assert  it.  This  is  clear  to  me,  dearest,  that  without 
me  you  pass  no  hour  that  is  not  sad. 

29  Still  if  my  lot  has  filled  out  its  destined  years 
and  if  the  end  of  living  is  come  so  quickly  upon  me, 
how  small  a  thing,  ye  mighty  gods,  to  show  mercy 
to  one  on  the  eve  of  death  so  that  at  least  I  might 
have  been  covered  with  my  native  soil  !  Would 
that  the  penalty  had  been  postponed  to  the  hour 
of  my  death  or  that  quick  death  had  anticipated 
my  exile  !  In  full  possession  of  my  rights,  as  I  was 
but  recently,  I  could  have  been  content  to  give  up 
this  light  of  day  ;  to  die  an  exile — for  that  has  life 
now  been  granted  me.  So  far  away,  then,  on  a 
strange  shore  I  shall  die,  and  the  very  place  shall 
render  harsh  my  fate  ;  neither  shall  my  body  grow 
weak  upon  the  familiar  couch,  nor  when  I  am  at 
the  point  of  death  shall  there  be  any  to  weep,  nor 
shall  my  lady's  tears  fall  upon  my  face  adding  brief 

1  If  the  text  is  right,  sit  is  to  be  supplied. 

Ill 


OVID 

nee  mandata  dabo,  nee  cum  clamore  supremo 

labentes  oculos  condet  arnica  manus  ; 
45  sed  sine  funeribus  caput  hoc,  sine  honore  sepulcri 

indeploratum  barbara  terra  teget  ! 
ecquid,  ubi  audieris,  tota  turbabere  mente, 

et  feries  pavida  pectora  fida  manu  ? 
ecquid,  in  has  frustra  tendens  tua  brachia  partes, 
50      clamabis  miseri  nomen  inane  viri  ? 

parce  tamen  lacerare  genas,  nee  scinde  capillos  : 

non  tibi  nunc  primum,  lux  mea,  raptus  ero. 
cum  patriam  amisi,  tune  me  periisse  putato  : 

et  prior  et  gravior  mors  fuit  ilia  mihi. 
55  nunc,  si  forte  potes — sed    non   potes,  optima   con- 

iunx — 

finitis  gaude  tot  mihi  morte  malis. 
quod  potes,  extenua  forti  mala  corde  ferendo, 
ad  quae  iam  pridem  non  rude  pectus  habes. 
atque  utinam  pereant  animae  cum  corpore  nostrae, 
60      effugiatque  avidos  pars  mihi  nulla  rogos  ! 
nam  si  morte  carens  vacua  volat  altus  in  aura 

spiritus,  et  Samii  sunt  rata  dicta  senis, 
inter  Sarmaticas  Romana  vagabitur  umbras, 

perque  feros  manes  hospita  semper  erit. 
65  ossa  tamen  facito  parva  referantur  in  urna  : 

sic  ego  non  etiam  mortuus  exul  ero. 
non     vetat     hoc     quisquam  :      fratrem     Thebana 

peremptum 

supposuit  tumulo  rege  vetante  soror. 
atque  ea  cum  foliis  et  amomi  pulvere  misce, 
70      inque  suburbano  condita  pone  solo  ; 

quosque  legat  versus  oculo  properante  viator, 
grandibus  in  tituli  marmore  caede  notis  : 

1  Pythagoras.  8  Antigone. 

112 


TRISTIA,  III.  in.  43-72 

moments  to  my  life  ;  nor  shall  I  utter  parting 
words,  nor  with  a  last  lament  shall  a  loved  hand 
close  my  fluttering  eyes,  but  without  funeral  rites, 
without  the  honour  of  a  tomb,  this  head  shall  lie 
unmourned  in  a  barbarian  land  ! 

47  Will  not  your  whole  heart  be  shaken,  when  you 
hear  this  ?  Will  you  not  beat  with  trembling  hand 
your  loyal  breast  ?  Will  you  not  stretch  forth  your 
arms  all  in  vain  towards  this  region  and  call  upon 
the  empty  name  of  your  wretched  husband  ?  Yet 
mar  not  your  cheeks  nor  tear  your  hair  :  not  now 
for  the  first  time,  light  of  mine,  shall  I  have  been 
torn  from  you.  When  I  lost  my  native  land,  then 
must  you  think  that  I  perished ;  that  was  my 
earlier  and  harder  death.  Now,  if  perchance  you 
have  the  power  (but  you  have  it  not,  best  of  wives), 
rejoice  that  so  many  misfortunes  are  ended  for  me 
by  death.  For  this  you  have  power:  lighten  by 
bearing  them  with  a  brave  soul  woes  in  which  for  a 
long  time  now  your  heart  is  not  untrained. 

59  O  that  our  souls  might  perish  with  the  body 
and  that  so  no  part  of  me  might  escape  the  greedy 
pyre  !  For  if  the  spirit  flits  aloft  deathless  in  the 
empty  air,  and  the  words  of  the  Samian  sage  x  are 
true,  a  Roman  will  wander  among  Sarmatian  shades, 
a  stranger  forever  among  barbarians.  But  my  bones 
— see  that  they  are  carried  home  in  a  little  urn  : 
so  shall  I  not  be  an  exile  even  in  death.  This  nobody 
forbids :  the  Theban  sister  2  laid  her  slain  brother 
beneath  the  tomb  though  the  king  forbade  ;  and 
mingling  with  my  bones  the  leaves  and  powder  of 
the  nard  lay  them  to  rest  in  soil  close  to  the  city, 
and  on  the  marble  carve  lines  for  the  wayfarer  to 
read  with  hasty  eye,  lines  in  large  characters  : 

i  113 


OVID 

HIC  '  EGO  *  QVI  •  IACEO  •  TENERORVM  •  LVSOR  •  AMORVM 

INGENIO  '  PERU  •  NASO  •  POETA  •  MEO 

75  AT' TIBI  •  QVI  •  TRANSIS  •  NE  •  SIT  •  GRAVE  •  QVISQVIS*  AMASTI 
DICERE  '  NASONIS  •  MOLLITER  •  OSSA  •  CVBENT 

hoc  satis  in  titulo  est.     etenim  maiora  libelli 

et  diuturna  magis  sunt  monimenta  mihi, 
quos  ego  confido,  quamvis  nocuere,  daturos 
80      nomen  et  auctori  tempora  longa  sao. 
tu  tamen  extincto  feralia  munera  semper 

deque  tuis  lacrimis  umida  serta  dato. 
quamvis  in  cineres  corpus  mutaverit  ignis, 

sentiet  officium  maesta  favilla  pium. 
85  scribere  plura  libet  :   sed  vox  mihi  fessa  loquendo 

dictandi  vires  siccaque  lingua  negat. 
accipe  supremo  dictum  mihi  forsitan  ore, 

quod,  tibi  qui  mittit,  non  habct  ipse,  "  vale." 

IV. 

O  mihi  care  quidem  semper,  sed  tempore  duro 

cognite,  res  postquam  procubuere  nieae, 
usibus  edocto  si  quicquam  credis  amico, 

vive  tibi  et  longe  nomina  magna  fuge. 
5  vive  tibi,  quantumque  potes  praelustria  vita  : 

saevum  praelustri  fulmen  ab  arce  venit. 
nam  quamquam  soli  possunt  prodesse  potcntes, 

non  prosint l  potius,  siquis 2  obesse  potest. 
effugit  hibernas  demissa  antemna  procellas, 
10      lataque  plus  parvis  vela  timoris  habent. 

1  prosit  vel  prodest :   prosint  scripsi,  cf.  prosunt  5" 
2  siquis]  plurimum 

1  Ovid  often  plays  on  the  literal  meaning  of  valere,  *'  to 
be  strong,"  "  to  be  in  health." 

114 


TRISTIA,  III.  m.  73— iv.  10 

I,  WHO  LIE  HERE,  WITH   TENDER  LOVES   ONCE    PLAYED, 
NASO,  THE    BARD,    WHOSE    LIFE    HIS    WIT    BETRAYED. 
GRUDGE    NOT,    O    LOVER,    AS    THOU    PASSEST    BY, 
A  PRAYER  I     "  SOFT  MAY  THE   BONES  OF  NASO  LIE  !  " 

This  for  the  inscription  ;  my  books  are  a  greater 
and  more  enduring  memorial.  These  I  have  sure 
trust,  although  they  have  injured  him,  will  give  a 
name  and  a  long  enduring  life  to  their  author.  Yet 
do  you  ever  give  to  the  dead  the  funeral  offerings 
and  garlands  moist  with  your  own  tears.  Although 
the  fire  change  my  body  to  ashes,  the  sorrowing 
dust  shall  feel  the  pious  care. 

85  More  would  I  write,  but  my  voice  worn  out  with 
speaking  and  my  parched  tongue  deny  the  strength 
for  dictation.  Receive  the  last  word  perhaps  my 
lips  shall  utter,  a  word  which  is  not  true  1  of  the 
sender  :  "  Farewell  !  " 


IV.   To  A  FRIEND — IN  WARNING 

O  thou  who  wast  ever  dear  to  me,  but  whom  I 
really  came  to  know  in  the  cruel  hour  when  my 
fortunes  fell  in  ruins,  if  thou  dost  in  anything  believe 
a  friend  who  has  been  taught  by  experience,  live 
for  thyself,  flee  afar  from  great  names  !  Live 
for  thyself,  and  to  thine  utmost  power  shun  glittering 
renown  ;  cruel  is  the  bolt  that  falls  from  the  glitter- 
ing citadel  of  renown.  For  though  the  powerful 
alone  can  help,  they  would  rather  not  help  if  they 
can  harm  !  2  The  lowered  yard-arm  escapes  the 
blast  of  the  storm,  broad  sails  bring  more  fear  than 

2  The  text  of  w.  7-8  is  corrupt. 

115 


OVID 

aspicis  ut  summa  cortex  levis  innatet  unda, 

cum  grave  nexa  simul  retia  mergat  onus, 
haec  ego  si  monitor  monitus  prius  ipse  fuissem, 

in  qua  debebam  forsitari  urbe  forem. 
15  dum  tecum  vixi,  dum  me  levis  aura  ferebat, 

haec  mea  per  placidas  cumba  cucurrit  aquas, 
qui  cadit  in  piano — vix  hoc  tamen  evenit  ipsum — 

sic  cadit,  ut  tacta  surgere  possit  humo ; 
at  miser  Elpenor  tecto  delapsus  ab  alto 
20      occurrit  regi  debilis  umbra  suo. 

quid  fuit,  ut  tutas  agitaret  Daedalus  alas, 

Icarus  inmensas  nomine  signet  aquas  ? 
nempe  quod  hie  alte,  demissius  ille  volabat ; 

nam  pennas  ambo  non  habuere  suas. 
25  crede  mi  hi,  bene  qui  latuit  bene  vixit,  et  intra 

fortunam  debet  quisque  manere  suam. 
non  foret  Eumedes  orbus,  si  filius  eius 

stultus  Achilleos  non  adam asset  equos  ; 
nee  natum  in  flamma  vidisset,  in  arbore  natas, 
30      cepisset  genitor  si  Phaethonta  M crops, 
tu  quoque  formida  nimium  sublimia  semper, 

propositique,  precor,  contrahe  vela  tui. 
nam  pede  inoffenso  spatium  decurrere  vitae 

dignus  es  et  fato  candidiore  frui. 
35  quae  pro  te  ut  voveam,  miti  pietate  mereris 

haesuraque  fide  tempus  in  omne  mihi. 
vidi  ego  te  tali  vultu  mea  fata  gementem, 

qualem  credibile  est  ore  fuisse  meo. 
nostra  tuas  vidi  lacrimas  super  ora  cadentes, 
40      tempore  quas  uno  fidaque  verba  bibi. 

nunc  quoque  summotum  studio  defendis  amicum, 

et  mala  vix  ulla  parte  levanda  levas. 

116 


TRISTIA,  III.  iv.  11-42 

small.  Thou  seest  how  the  light  cork  floats  atop 
the  wave  when  the  heavy  burden  sinks  with  itself 
the  woven  nets.  If  I  who  warn  thee  now  had  once 
myself  been  warned  of  this,  perchance  I  should  now 
be  in  that  city  in  which  I  ought  to  be.  Whilst  I 
lived  with  thee,  whilst  the  light  breeze  wafted  me 
on,  this  bark  of  mine  sped  through  calm  waters. 
Who  falls  on  level  ground — though  this  scarce 
happens — so  falls  that  he  can  rise  from  the  ground 
he  has  touched,  but  poor  Elpenor  who  fell  from  the 
high  roof  met  his  king  a  crippled  shade.  Why  was  it 
that  Daedalus  in  safety  plied  his  wings  while  Icarus 
marks  with  his  name  the  limitless  waves  ?  Doubt- 
less because  Icarus  flew  high,  the  other  flew  lower  ; 
for  both  had  wings  not  their  own.  Let  me  tell  thee, 
he  who  hides  well  his  life,  lives  well  ;  each  man  ought 
to  remain  within  his  proper  position.  Eumedes  would 
not  have  been  childless,  if  in  folly  his  son  l  had  not 
had  a  fancy  for  the  horses  of  Achilles.  Merops  would 
not  have  seen  his  son  in  flames  nor  his  daughters 
in  the  form  of  trees  if  he  had  been  a  father  great 
enough  for  Phaethon.  Do  thou  also  dread  constantly 
that  which  is  too  lofty  and  furl  the  sails  of  thine 
intent.  For  thou  dost  deserve  to  finish  life's  race 
with  unstumbling  foot,  enjoying  a  fairer  lot  than  mine 
35  These  my  prayers  for  thee  are  deserved  by  thy 
gentle  affection  and  by  that  loyalty  which  will 
cling  to  me  for  all  time.  I  saw  thee  lamenting  my 
fate  with  such  a  look  as  I  think  my  own  face  must 
have  borne.  I  saw  thy  tears  fall  upon  my  face — 
tears  which  I  drank  in  with  thy  words  of  loyalty. 
Even  now  thou  dost  defend  with  zeal  thy  banished 
friend,  lightening  woes  that  are  scarce  in  any  part 
1  Dolon. 

117 


OVID 

vive  sine  invidia,  mollesque  inglorius  annos 

exige,  amicitias  et  tibi  iunge  pares, 
45  Nasonisque  tui,  quod  adhuc  non  exulat  unum, 
nomen  ama  :  Scythicus  cetera  Pontus  habet. 

IV*1 

Proxima  sideribus  tellus  Erymanthidos  Ursae 

me  tenet,  adstricto  terra  perusta  gelu. 
Bosphoros  et  Tanais  superant  Scythiaeque  paludes 
50      vix  satis  et  noti  nomina  pauca  loci, 
ulterius  nihil  est  nisi  non  habitabile  frigus. 
heu  quam  vicina  est  ultima  terra  mihi ! 
at  longe  patria  est,  longe  carissima  coniunx, 
quicquid  et  haec  nobis  post  duo  dulce  fuit. 
65  sic  tamen  haec  adsunt,  ut  quae  contingere  non  est 

corpore  :  sunt  animo  cuncta  videnda  meo. 
ante  oculos  errant  domus,  urbsque  et 2  forma  locorum, 

acceduntque  suis  singula  facta  locis. 
coniugis  ante  oculos,  sicut  praesentis,  imago  est.3 
60      ilia  meos  casus  ingravat,  ilia  levat  : 

ingravat  hoc,  quod  abest ;   levat  hoc,  quod  praestat 

amorem 

inpositumque  sibi  firma  tuetur  onus, 
vos  quoque  pectoribus  nostris  haeretis,  amici, 

dicere  quos  cupio  nomine  quemque  suo. 
65  sed  timor  ofTicium  cautus  compescit,  et  ipsos 

in  nostro  poni  carmine  nolle  puto. 
ante  volebatis,  gratique  erat  instar  honoris, 
versibus  in  nostris  nomina  vestra  legi. 

1  continuant  cum  prioribus  codd. 
8  urbs  et  corr.  $r  8  est  om* 

1  The  Don. 
118 


TRISTIA,  III.   iv.  43-68 

to  be  lightened.  Live  unenvied,  pass  years  of  comfort 
apart  from  fame,  unite  to  thee  friends  like  thyself, 
and  love  thy  Naso's  name — the  only  part  of  him  not 
as  yet  in  exile  :  all  else  the  Scythian  Pontus  possesses. 


IV  * 

To  hearts  that  cannot  vary 
Absence  is  present. 

47  A  land  next  the  stars  of  the  Erymanthian  bear 
holds  me,  a  region  shrivelled  with  stiffening  cold. 
Beyond  are  the  Bosporus  and  the  Tanais  l  and  the 
Scythian  marshes  and  the  scattered  names  of  a 
region  hardly  known  at  all.  Farther  still  is  nothing 
but  a  cold  that  forbids  habitation.  Alas  !  how  near 
to  me  is  the  margin  of  the  world  !  But  my  father- 
land is  far  away,  far  my  dearest  wife,  and  all  that 
after  these  two  was  once  sweet  to  me.  Yet  even 
so  these  things  are  present,  though  I  cannot  touch 
them;  to  my  mind  all  are  visible.  Before  my  eyes 
flit  my  home,  the  city,  the  outline  of  places,  the 
events  too  that  happened  in  each  place.  Before 
my  eyes  is  the  image  of  my  wife  as  though  she  were 
present.  She  makes  my  woes  heavier,  she  makes 
them  lighter — heavier  by  her  absence,  lighter  by 
her  gift  of  love  and  her  steadfast  bearing  of  the 
burden  laid  upon  her. 

63  You  too  are  fast  in  my  heart,  my  friends,  whom 
I  am  eager  to  mention  each  by  his  own  name,  but 
cautious  fear  restrains  the  duty  and  you  yourselves 
do  not  wish  a  place  in  my  poetry,  I  think.  Of  old 
you  wished  it,  for  it  was  like  a  grateful  honour  to 
have  your  names  read  in  my  verse.  Since  now  'tis 

119 


OVID 

quod  quoniam  est  anceps,  intra  mea  pectora  quemque 
70      adloquar,  et  nulli  causa  timoris  ero. 
nee  meus  indicio  latitantes  versus  amicos 

protrahit.1    occulte  siquis  amabat,  amet. 
scite  tamen,  quamvis  longe 2  regione  remotus 

absim,  vos  animo  semper  adesse  meo  ; 
75  et  qua  quisque  potest,  aliqua  mala  nostra  levate, 

fidam  proiecto  neve  negate  manum. 
prospera  sic  maneat  vobis  fortuna,  nee  umquam 
contact!  simili  sorte  rogetis  idem. 


Usus  amicitiae  tecum  mihi  parvus,  ut  illam 

non  aegre  posses  dissimulare,  fuit, 
nee  8  me  complexus  vinclis  propioribus  esses 

nave  mea  vento,  forsan,  eunte  suo. 
5  ut  cecidi  cunctique  metu  fugere  ruinam, 

versaque  amicitiae  terga  dedere  meae, 
ausus  es  igne  lovis  percussum  tangere  corpus 

et  deploratae  limen  adire  domus  : 
idque  recens  praestas  nee  longo  cognitus  usu, 
10      quod  veterum  misero  vix  duo  tresve  mihi. 
vidi  ego  confusos  vultus  visosque  notavi, 

osque  madens  fletu  pallidiusque  meo, 
et  lacrimas  cernens  in  singula  verba  cadentes 

ore  meo  lacrimas,  auribus  ilia  bibi  ; 
15  brachiaque  accepi  presso  4  pendentia  collo, 

et  singultatis  oscula  mixta  sonis. 
sum  quoque,  care,  tuis  defensus  viribus  absens — 

scis  carum  veri  nominis  esse  loco — 

1  protrahet        *  longa  corr.  Owen  ex  deflorat.       3  ni :  nee  r 
*  maesto 

1  Perhaps  Carus,  i.e.  carus,  "  dear.*'     See  Introd.  p.  xiv. 
120 


TRISTIA,  III.  iv.  69— v.  18 

dangerous,  within  my  heart  will  I  address  each  one 
and  be  cause  of  fear  to  none.  My  verse  gives  no 
hint  that  forces  my  friends  from  their  concealment. 
In  secret  let  whosoever  loved  me  love  me  still.  Yet 
know  that  though  I  am  absent  and  far  removed  in 
space,  you  are  ever  present  to  my  heart.  Let  each 
of  you  in  what  way  he  can — in  some  way — lighten  my 
woes,  nor  refuse  an  outcast  a  trusty  hand.  So  may 
good  fortune  abide  for  you  nor  ever  may  you,  visited 
with  a  like  fate,  make  the  same  request. 


V.  To  ONE  WHO  HAS  BEEN  FAITHFUL 

Slight  was  my  friendly  intercourse  with  you  so 
that  you  could  without  difficulty  have  denied  it, 
and  you  would  not  have  embraced  me  more  closely 
perhaps,  if  my  ship  had  been  running  before  a 
favouring  wind.  At  my  fall,  when  all  in  fear  fled 
my  ruin,  turning  their  backs  upon  friendship  with 
me,  you  dared  to  touch  the  corpse  Jove's  fire  had 
blasted  and  to  approach  the  threshold  of  a  house 
bemoaned.  You,  a  recent  friend,  not  one  known 
through  long  intercourse,  give  me  what  scarcely  two 
or  three  of  my  old  friends  gave  in  my  wretchedness. 
I  myself  saw  and  marked  your  look  of  grief,  your 
face  wet  with  tears  and  paler  than  my  own.  And 
as  I  saw  your  tears  falling  with  every  word,  drinking 
in  with  my  lips  the  tears  and  with  my  ears  the  words, 
I  felt  the  clasp  of  your  encircling  arms  about  my 
neck  and  I  was  aware  of  your  kisses  mingled  with 
the  sound  of  your  sobbing.  I  have  had  your  strong 
defence  also  in  my  absence,  dear  one — you  know 
that  "  dear  one  "  stands  for  your  real  name1 — and 

121 


OVID 

multaque  praeterea  manifest! l  signa  favoris 
20      pectoribus  teneo  non  abitura  meis. 

di  tibi  posse  tuos  tribuant  defendere  semper, 

quos  in  materia  prosperiore  iuves. 
si  tamen  interea,  quid  in  his  ego  perditus  oris — 

quod  te  credibile  est  quaerere — quaeris,  agam, 
25  spe  trahor  exigua,  quam  tu  mihi  demere  noli, 

tristia  leniri  numina  posse  dei. 
seu  temere  expecto,  sive  id  contingere  fas  est, 

tu  mihi,  quod  cupio,  fas,  precor,  esse  proba, 
quaeque  tibi  linguae  est  facundia,  confer  in  illud, 
30      ut  doceas  votum  posse  valere  meum. 

quo  quisque  est  maior,  magis  est  placabilis  irae, 

et  faciles  motus  mens  generosa  capit. 
corpora  magnanimo  satis  est  prostrasse  leoni, 

pugna  suum  finem,  cum  iacet  hostis,  habet : 
35  at  lupus  et  turpes  instant  morientibus  ursi 

et  quaecumque  minor  nobilitate  fera. 
maius  apud  Troiam  forti  quid  habemus  Achille  ? 

Dardanii  lacrimas  non  tulit  ille  senis. 
quae  ducis  Emathii  fuerit  dementia,  Porus 
40      Dareique  docent  funeris  exequiae. 

neve  hominum  referam  flexas  ad  mitius  iras, 

lunonis  gener  est  qui  prius  hostis  erat. 
denique  non  possum  nullam  sperare  salutem, 

cum  poenae  non  sit  causa  cruenta  meae. 
45  non  mini  quaerenti  pessumdare  cuncta  petitum 

Caesareum  caput  est,  quod  caput  orbis  erat ; 
non  aliquid  dixive,  elatave2  lingua  loquendo  est, 

lapsaque  sunt  nimio  verba  profana  mero  : 

1  manifesto 

2  dixi  velataque  (vel  violataque  vel  violentaque)  corr. 
Ellis 

1  Priam  begging  for  Hector's  body. 
122 


TRISTTA,  III.  v.  19-48 

many  other  clear  marks  of  your  affection  I  still 
retain  that  will  not  leave  my  heart.  The  gods  grant 
you  always  the  power  to  defend  your  own  !  May 
you  aid  them  in  more  fortunate  circumstances 
than  mine  ! 

23  Yet  meanwhile,  if  you  ask — and  I  believe  that 
you  do  ask — how  in  my  ruin  I  fare  upon  this  shore, 
I  am  led  on  by  the  slender  hope — take  it  not  from 
me — that  the  harsh  will  of  the  god  can  be  softened. 
Whether  my  hope  is  groundless  or  whether  it  is 
vouchsafed  me  to  attain  it,  do  you  prove  to  me,  I 
pray,  that  my  great  desire  is  vouchsafed  ;  whatever 
eloquence  you  have  devote  to  this — to  showing  that 
my  prayer  can  be  accomplished.  The  greater  a 
man  is,  the  more  can  his  wrath  be  appeased  ;  a 
noble  spirit  is  capable  of  kindly  impulses.  For  the 
noble  lion  'tis  enough  to  have  overthrown  his  enemy  ; 
the  fight  is  at  an  end  when  his  foe  is  fallen.  But 
the  wolf,  the  ignoble  bears  harry  the  dying — and 
so  with  every  beast  of  less  nobility.  At  Troy  what 
have  we  mightier  than  brave  Achilles  ?  But  the 
tears  of  the  aged  Dardanian l  he  could  not  endure. 
The  quality  of  the  Emathian  leader's 2  mercy  is 
proved  by  Porus  and  the  funeral  ceremony  of  Darius. 
And  not  to  dwell  upon  instances  of  human  wrath 
turned  to  milder  ends — he  is  now  Juno's  son-in- 
law3  who  was  once  her  foe.  In  fine  'tis  possible  for 
me  to  hope  for  some  salvation  since  the  cause  of 
my  punishment  involves  no  stain  of  blood  ;  I  never 
sought  to  wreck  everything  by  assailing  the  life 
of  Caesar,  which  is  the  life  of  the  world.  I  have  said 
nothing,  divulged  nothing  in  speech,  let  slip  no 
impious  words  by  reason  of  too  much  wine  :  because 

2  Alexander  the  Great.  8  Hercules,  who  married  Hebe. 

123 


OVID 

inscia  quod  crimen  viderunt  lumina,  plector, 
60      peccatumque  oculos  est  habuisse  meum. 
non  equidem  totam  possum  defendere  culpam, 

sed  partem  nostri  criminis  error  habet. 
spes  igitur  superest  facturum  ut  molliat  ipse 

mutati  poenam  condicione  loci. 
55  hos l  utinam  nitidi  Soils  praenuntius  ortus 
afferat  admisso  Lucifer  albus  equo  ! 

VI 

Foedus  amicitiae  nee  vis,  carissime,  nostrae, 

nee,  si  forte  velis,  dissimulare  potes. 
donee  enim  licuit,  nee  te  mini  carior  alter, 

nee  tibi  me  tota  iunctior  urbe  fuit, 
6  isque  erat  usque  adeo  populo  testatus,  ut  esset 

paene  magis  quam  tu  quarnque  ego  notus,  amor  ; 
quique  est  in  caris  animi  tibi  candor  amicis — 

cognita  sunt  ipsi,  quern  colis,  ista2  viro. 
nil  ita  celabas,  ut  non  ego  conscius  essem, 
10      pectoribusque  dabas  multa  tegenda  meis  : 
cuique  ego  narrabam  secreti  quicquid  habebam, 

excepto  quod  me  perdidit,  unus  eras. 
id  quoque  si  scisses,  salvo  fruerere  sodali, 

consilioque  forem  sospes,  amice,  tuo. 
15  sed  mea  me  in  poenam  nimirum  fata  trahebant : 

omne  bonae  claudunt 3  utilitatis  iter. 
sive  malum  potui  tamen  hoc  vitare  cavendo, 

seu  ratio  fa  turn  vincere  nulla  valet, 
tu  tamen,  o  nobis  usu  iunctissime  longo, 
20      pars  desiderii  maxima  paene  mei, 

1  hoc  corr.  Riese 
8  cognitus  est  ipsi  .  .  .  iste  *  claudent  r 

1  Augustus. 
124 


TRISTIA,  III.  v.  49— vi.  20 

my  unwitting  eyes  beheld  a  crime,  I  am  punished, 
and  'tis  my  sin  that  I  possessed  eyes.  I  cannot 
indeed  exculpate  my  fault  entirely,  but  part  of  it 
consists  in  error.  So  have  I  still  some  hope  that  he 
may  bring  himself  to  lighten  my  punishment  by 
changing  its  place.  Would  that  such  a  dawn  as 
this  may  be  brought  me  by  the  harbinger  of  the 
gleaming  sun,  fair  Lucifer,  with  his  swift  steed  ! 


VI.   To  AN  OLD  FRIEND 

The  bond  of  our  friendship,  dear  one,  you 
neither  wish  to  hide  nor,  should  you  perchance  so 
wish,  have  you  the  power,  for  while  it  was  possible 
no  other  was  dearer  to  me  than  you  were,  no  one 
in  the  whole  city  closer  to  you  than  I  ;  that  love 
was  so  thoroughly  attested  by  everybody  that  it 
was  almost  better  known  than  you  or  I,  and  the 
frankness  of  your  heart  towards  your  dear  friends — 
all  this  is  known  to  that  very  man l  whom  you  love. 
You  had  no  secret  such  that  I  was  not  aware 
of  it,  and  many  things  you  used  to  entrust  to 
the  guardianship  of  my  heart.  To  you  alone  I 
used  to  tell  all  my  secrets  except  that  one  which 
ruined  me.  If  you  had  known  that  also,  you 
would  now  be  enjoying  the  safety  of  your  comrade : 
through  your  advice  I  should  be  safe,  my  friend. 
But  doubtless  my  fate  was  dragging  me  to  punish- 
ment ;  it  closes  every  road  of  advantage.  Yet 
whether  I  could  have  avoided  this  evil  by  taking 
care  or  whether  no  planning  can  defeat  fate,  do 
you,  close  joined  to  me  by  long  friendship,  you 
almost  the  largest  part  of  my  longing,  remember 

125 


OVID 

sis  memor,  et  siquas  fecit  tibi  gratia  vires, 

illas  pro  nobis  experiare,  rogo, 
numinis  ut  laesi  fiat  mansuetior  ira, 

mutatoque  minor  sit  mea  poena  loco, 
25  idque  ita,  si  nullum  scelus  est  in  pectore  nostro, 

principi unique  mei  criminis  error  habet. 
nee  breve  nee  tutum,  quo  sint  mea,  clicere,  casu 

lumina  funesti  conscia  facta  mali  ; 
mensque  reformidat,  veluti  sua  vulnera,  tempus 
30      illud,  et  admonitu  fit  novus  ipse  pudor, 

et  quaecumque  adeo  possunt  afferre  pudorem, 

ilia  tegi  caeca  condita  nocte  decet. 
nil  igitur  referam  nisi  me  peccasse,  sed  illo 

praemia  peccato  nulla  petita  mihi, 
35  stultitiamque  meum  crimen  debere  vocari, 

nomina  si  facto  reddere  vera  velis. 
quae  si  non  ita  sunt,  aliurn,  quo  longius  absim, 

quaere  ;  suburbana  est  hie  mihi  terra  locus. 


VII 

VADE  salutatum,  subito  perarata,  Perillam, 

littera,  sermonis  fida  ministra  mei. 
aut  illam  invenies  dulci  cum  matre  sedentem, 

aut  inter  libros  Pieridasque  suas. 
5  quidquid  aget,  cum  te  scierit  venisse,  relinquct, 

nee  mora,  quid  venias  quidve,  requiret,  agam. 
vivere  me  dices,  sed  sic,  ut  vivere  nolim, 

nee  mala  tarn  longa  nostra  levata  mora  ; 
et  tamen  ad  Musas,  quamvis  nocuere,  reverti. 
10      aptaque  in  alternos  cogere  verba  pedes. 
126 


TR1STIA,  III.  vi.  21— vir    10 

me  ;  and  if  favour  has  given  you  any  powers,  I 
beg  that  you  will  test  them  in  my  behalf  to  soften 
the  wrath  of  the  injured  deity  and  that  my  punish- 
ment may  be  lessened  by  changing  its  place — and 
this  only  on  condition  that  no  crime  is  in  my  heart 
but  a  mistake  is  responsible  for  the  beginning  of 
my  sin.  Tis  not  a  brief  tale  or  safe  to  say  what 
chance  made  my  eyes  witness  a  baleful  evil.  My 
mind  shrinks  in  dread  from  that  time,  as  'twere 
from  its  own  wounds,  and  the  very  thought  of  it 
renews  my  shame  ;  whatever  can  bring  such  sense 
of  shame  should  be  covered  and  hidden  in  the 
darkness  of  night.  Nothing  then  will  I  say  except 
that  I  have  sinned,  but  by  that  sin  sought  no  reward  ; 
folly  is  the  proper  name  for  my  crime,  if  you  wish 
to  give  the  true  title  to  the  deed.  If  this  is  untrue, 
then  seek  a  still  more  distant  place  for  my  exile  ; 
this  place  is  for  me  a  land  close  to  the  city.1 

VII.  To  PEIULLA 

Go,  greet  Perilla,  quickly  written  letter,  and  be 
the  trusty  servant  of  my  speech.  You  will  find  her 
sitting  in  the  company  of  her  sweet  mother  or  amid 
books  and  the  Pierian  maidens  she  loves.  Whatever 
she  be  doing  she  will  leave  it  when  she  knows  of 
your  coming  and  ask  at  once  why  you  come  or 
how  I  fare.  Say  that  I  live,  but  in  such  wise  that  I 
would  not  live  ;  that  my  misfortunes  have  not  been 
lightened  by  the  lapse  of  so  long  a  time,  that  never- 
theless I  am  returning  to  the  Muses  despite  their 
injury,  forcing  words  to  fit  alternating  measures. 

1  i.e.  my  present  place  of  exile  is  all  too  near  Rome  for 
one  who  could  be  guilty  of  such  untruth. 

127 


OVID 

"  tu    quoque "    die    "  studiis    communibus    ecquid 

inhaeres, 

doctaque  non  patrio  carmina  more  canis  ? 
nam  tibi  cum  fatis  mores  natura  pudicos 

et  raras  dotes  ingeniumque  dedit. 
16  hoc  ego  Pegasidas  deduxi  primus  ad  undas, 

ne  male  fecundae  vena  periret  aquae  ; 
primus  id  aspexi  teneris  in  virginis  annis, 

utque  pater  natae  duxque  comesque  fui. 
ergo  si  remanent  ignes  tibi  pectoris  idem, 
20      sola  tuum  vates  Lesbia  vincet  opus. 

sed  vereor,  ne  te  mea  nunc  fortuna  retardet, 

postque  meos  casus  sit  tibi  pectus  iners. 
dum  licuit,  tua  saepe  mihi,  tibi  nostra  legebam  ; 

saepe  tui  iudex,  saepe  magister  eram  : 
25  aut  ego  praebebam  factis  modo  versibus  aures, 

aut,  ubi  cessares,  causa  ruboris  eram. 
forsitan  exemplo,  quia  me  laesere  libelli, 

tu  quoque  sis  poenae  fata l  secuta  meae. 
pone,  Perilla,  metum  ;  tantummodo  femina  nulla 
30      neve  vir  a  scrip tis  discat  amare  tuis. 
ergo  desidiae  remove,  doctissima,  causas, 

inque  bonas  artes  et  tua  sacra  redi. 
ista  decens  facies  longis  vitiabitur  annis, 
rugaque  in  antiqua  fronte  senilis  erit, 
35  inicietque  manum  formae  damnosa  senectus, 
quae  strepitum  2  passu  non  faciente  venit ; 
cumque  aliquis  dicet '  fuit  haec  formosa  '  dolebis, 

et  speculum  mendax  esse  querere  tuum. 
sunt  tibi  opes  modicae,  cum  sis  dignissima  magnis  : 
40      finge  sed  inmensis  censibus  esse  pares, 

1  facta  :   fata  5~  *  strepitus  :   strepitum  5" 

1  i.e.  Ovid's,    See  Index  s.v.  Perilla. 
128 


TRISTIA,  HI.  vii.  11-40 

Say  to  her,  "  Art  thou  too  still  devoted  to  our 
common  pursuit  of  singing  learned  verse,  though  not 
in  thy  father's  1  fashion  ?  For  with  thy  life  nature 
has  bestowed  upon  thee  modest  ways  and  a  rare 
dower  of  native  wit.  This  I  was  the  first  to  guide 
to  the  stream  of  Pegasus  lest  the  rill  of  fertile  water 
unhappily  be  lost.  I  was  the  first  to  discern  this  in 
the  tender  years  of  thy  girlhood  when,  as  a  father  to 
his  daughter,  I  was  thy  guide  and  comrade.  So  if 
the  same  fire  still  abides  in  thy  breast,  only  the 
Lesbian  bard 2  will  surpass  thy  work.  But  I  fear 
that  my  fate  may  now  be  trammelling  thee,  that  since 
my  disaster  thy  mind  may  have  become  inactive. 
Whilst  I  could,  I  used  often  to  read  thy  verse  to 
myself  and  mine  to  thee  ;  often  was  I  thy  critic, 
often  thy  teacher,  now  lending  my  ear  to  the  verses 
thou  hadst  recently  composed,  now  causing  thee  to 
blush  when  thou  wert  idle.  Perchance  from  the 
example  of  the  injury  that  verse  has  done  me  thou 
too  mayst  have  experienced  in  thought  the  fate  of 
my  punishment.  Lay  aside  thy  fear,  Perilla  ;  only 
let  no  woman  or  any  man  learn  from  thy  writings 
how  to  love. 

31  "So  put  aside  the  causes  of  sloth,  accomplished 
girl,  return  to  a  noble  art  and  thy  sacred  offerings. 
That  fair  face  will  be  marred  by  the  long  years,  the 
wrinkles  of  age  will  come  in  time  upon  thy  brow. 
Ruinous  age  that  comes  with  noiseless  step  will  lay 
her  hand  upon  thy  beauty,  and  when  someone  shall 
say,  *  She  once  was  fair/  thou  wilt  grieve  and  com- 
plain that  thy  mirror  lies.  Thou  hast  a  modest 
fortune,  though  full  worthy  of  a  great  one  ;  but 
imagine  it  the  equal  of  boundless  riches,  still  assuredly 
*  Sappho. 

K  129 


OVID 

nempe  dat  id 1  quodcumque  libet  fortuna  rapitque, 

Irus  et  est  subito,  qui  modo  Croesus  erat. 
singula  ne  referam,  nil  non  mortale  tenemus 

pectoris  exceptis  ingeniique  bonis. 
45  en  ego,  cum  caream  patria  vobisque  domoque, 

raptaque  sint,  adimi  quae  potuere  mihi, 
ingenio  tamen  ipse  meo  comitorque  fruorque  : 

Caesar  in  hoc  potuit  iuris  habere  nihil. 
quilibet  hanc  saevo  vitam  mihi  finiat  ense, 
50      me  tamen  extincto  fama  superstes  erit, 

dumque  suis  victrix  omnem  de  montibus  orbem 

prospiciet  domitum  Martia  Roma,  legar. 
tu  quoque,  quam  studii  maneat  felicior  usus, 

effuge  ventures,  qua  potes,  usque  rogos  !  " 

VIII. 

Nunc  ego  Triptolemi  cuperem  consistere  curru, 

misit  in  ignotam  qui  rude  semen  humum  ; 
nunc  ego  Medeae  vellem  frenare  dracones, 
quos  habuit  fugiens  arce,  Corinthe,  tua  ; 
6  nunc  ego  iactandas  optarem  sumere  pennas, 

sive  tuas,  Perseu,  Daedale,  sive  tuas  : 
ut  tenera  nostris  cedente  volatibus  aura 

aspicerem  patriae  dulce  repente  solum, 
desertaeque  domus  vultus,  memoresque  sodales, 
10      caraque  praecipue  coniugis  ora  meae. 

stulte,  quid  haec  frustra  votis  puerilibus  optas, 

quae  non  ulla  tibi 2  fertque  feretque  dies  ? 
si  semel  optandum  est,  Augusti  numen  adora, 

et,  quern  sensisti,  rite  precare  deum. 
15  ille  tibi  pennasque  potest  currusque  volucres 
tradere  :  det  reditum,  protinus  ales  eris. 

1  et:  idr  *  tulit 

130 


TRISTIA,  III.  vn.  41— vin.  16 

fortune  gives  and  takes  away  whatever  she  pleases, 
and  he  becomes  suddenly  an  Irus  who  was  but  now 
a  Croesus.  In  brief  we  possess  nothing  that  is  not 
mortal  except  the  blessings  of  heart  and  mind. 
Behold  me,  deprived  of  native  land,  of  you  and  my 
home,  reft  of  all  that  could  be  taken  from  me  ;  my 
mind  is  nevertheless  my  comrade  and  my  joy  ;  over 
this  Caesar  could  have  no  right.  Let  any  you  will 
end  this  life  with  cruel  sword,  yet  when  I  am  dead 
my  fame  shall  survive.  As  long  as  Martian  Rome 
shall  gaze  forth  victorious  from  her  hills  over  the 
conquered  world,  I  shall  be  read.  Do  thou  too — 
and  may  a  happier  use  of  thine  art  await  thee — 
ever  shun  what  way  thou  canst  the  coming  pyre  !  " 


VIII.  THE  EXILE'S  PRAYER 

Now  would  I  crave  to  stand  in  the  car  of  Triptole- 
mus,  who  flung  the  untried  seed  on  ground  that  had 
known  it  not ;  now  would  I  bridle  the  dragons  that 
Medea  had  when  she  fled  thy  citadel,  O  Corinth  ; 
now  would  I  pray  for  wings  to  ply — thine,  Perseus, 
or  thine,  Daedalus — that  the  yielding  air  might  give 
way  before  my  rapid  flight  and  I  might  on  a 
sudden  behold  the  sweet  soil  of  my  native  land,  the 
faces  in  my  lonely  home,  my  loyal  friends,  and — 
foremost  of  all — the  dear  features  of  my  wife. 

11  Fool !  why  pray  in  vain  like  a  child  for  such  things 
as  these — things  which  no  day  brings  you  or  will 
bring  ?  If  only  you  must  pray,  worship  Augustus's 
divinity  ;  petition  in  due  form  that  god  whose  might 
you  have  felt.  He  has  power  to  grant  you  feathers 
and  winged  cars  :  let  him  grant  return  and  forthwith 

131 


OVID 

si  precer  hoc — neque  enim  possum  maiora  rogare — 

ne  mea  sint,  timeo,  vota  modesta  parum. 
forsitan  hoc  olim,  cum  iam  satiaverit  iram, 
20      turn  quoque  sollicita  mente  rogandus  erit. 

quod  minus  inter ea  est,  instar  mini  muneris  ampli, 

ex  his  me  iubeat  quolibet  ire  locis. 
nee  caelum  nee  aquae  faciunt  nee  terra  nee  aurae  ; 

ei  mihi,  perpetuus  corpora  languor  habet ! 
25  seu  vitiant  artus  aegrae  contagia  mentis, 

sive  mei  causa  est  in  regione  mali, 
ut  tetigi  Pontum,  vexant  insomnia,  vixque 

ossa  tegit  macies  nee  iuvat  ora  cibus  ; 
quique  per  autumnum  percussis  frigore  primo 
30      est  color  in  foliis,  quae  nova  laesit  hiems, 
is  mea  membra  tenet,  nee  viribus  adlevor  ullis, 

et  numquam  queruli  causa  doloris  abest. 
nee  melius  valeo,  quam  corpore,  mente,  sed  aegra  est 

utraque  pars  aeque  binaque  damna  fero. 
35  haeret  et  ante  oculos  veluti  spectabile  corpus 

astat  fortunae  forma  legenda  meae  : 
cumque     locum     moresque     hominum     cultusque 

sonumque 

cernimus,  et,  qui  sim  qui  fuerimque,  subit, 
tantus  amor  necis  est,  querar  ut  cum  Caesaris  ira, 
40      quod  non  offensas  vindicet  ense  suas. 
at,  quoniam  semel  est  odio  civiliter  usus, 
mutato  levior  sit  fuga  nostra  loco. 


IX. 

Hie  quoque  sunt  igitur  Graiae — quis  crederet  ? — 

urbes 

inter  inhumanae  nomina  barbariae  ; 
132 


TRISTIA,  III.  vm.  17— ix.  2 

you  will  have  wings.  Were  I  to  pray  for  this  (and  I 
can  ask  no  greater  things)  I  fear  my  prayer  would 
lack  restraint.  For  this  perchance  sometime,  when 
his  wrath  is  sated,  I  shall  have  to  pray  with  a  heart 
troubled  even  then.  Meanwhile  a  smaller  thing,  but 
equal  to  a  generous  boon  for  me — let  him  bid  me 
go  anywhere  from  this  place.  Neither  climate  nor 
water  suit  me,  nor  land  nor  air — ah  me  !  a  constant 
weakness  possesses  my  frame.  Whether  the  con- 
tagion of  a  sick  mind  affects  my  limbs  or  the  cause 
of  my  ills  is  this  region,  since  I  reached  the  Pontus, 
I  am  harassed  by  sleeplessness,  scarce  does  the  lean 
flesh  cover  my  bones,  food  pleases  not  my  lips  ;  and 
such  a  hue  as  in  autumn,  when  the  first  chill  has 
smitten  them,  shows  on  the  leaves  that  young  winter 
has  marred,  overspreads  my  body  ;  no  strength 
brings  relief,  and  I  never  lack  cause  for  plaintive 
pain.  I  am  no  better  in  mind  than  in  body  ;  both 
alike  are  sick  and  I  suffer  double  hurt.  Clinging  and 
standing  like  a  visible  body  before  my  eyes  is  the 
figure  of  my  fate  that  I  must  scan  ;  and  when  I 
behold  the  country,  the  ways,  the  dress,  the  language 
of  the  people,  when  I  remember  what  I  am  and  what 
I  was,  I  have  so  great  a  love  of  death  that  I  complain 
of  Caesar's  wrath,  because  he  avenges  not  his  wrongs 
with  the  sword.  But  since  he  has  once  exercised 
his  hatred  mildly,  let  him  lighten  my  exile  still 
further  by  changing  its  place. 


IX.  THE  ORIGIN  OF  TOMIS 

Here  too  then  there  are  Grecian  cities  (who  would 
believe  it  ?)  among  the  names  of  the  wild  barbarian 

133 


OVID 

hue  quoque  Mileto  missi  venere  coloni, 

inque  Getis  Graias  constituere  domos. 
5  sed  vetus  huic  nomen,  positaque  antiquius  urbe, 

constat  ab  Absyrti  caede  fuisse  loco, 
nam  rate,  quae  cura  pugnacis  facta  Minervae 

per  non  temptatas  prima  cucurrit  aquas, 
impia  desertum  fugiens  Medea  parentern 
10      dicitur  his  remos  applicuisse  vadis. 

quern  procul  ut  vidit  tumulo  speculator  ab  alto, 
"  hospes,"  ait,  "  nosco,  Colchide,  vela,  venit." 
dum  trepidant  Minyae,  dum  solvitur  aggere  funis, 

dum  sequitur  celeres  ancora  tracta  manus, 
15  conscia  percussit  meritorum  pectora  Colchis 
ausa  atque  ausura  multa  nefanda  manu  ; 
et,  quamquam  superest  ingens  audacia  menti, 

pallor  in  attonitae  virginis  ore  fuit. 
ergo  ubi  prospexit  venientia  vela  "  tenemur, 
20      et  pater  est  aliqua  fraude  morandus  "  ait. 

dum     quid    agat    quaerit,    dum    versat    in    omnia 

vultus, 

ad  fratrem  casu  lumina  flexa  tulit. 
cuius  ut  oblata  est  praesentia,  "  vicimus  "  inquit  : 

"  hie  mihi  morte  sua  causa  salutis  erit." 
25  protinus  ignari  nee  quicquam  tale  timentis 

innocuum  rigido  perforat  ense  latus, 
atque  ita  divellit  divulsaque  membra  per  agros 

dissipat  in  multis  invenienda  locis. 
neu  pater  ignoret,  scopulo  proponit  in  alto 
30      pallentesque  manus  sanguineumque  caput, 

1  The  Argo. 
134 


TRISTIA,  III.  ix.  3-30 

world  ;  hither  also  came  from  Miletus  colonists  to 
found  among  the  Getae  Grecian  homes.  But  the 
ancient  name,  more  ancient  than  the  founding  of  the 
city,  was  given  to  this  place,  'tis  certain,  from  the 
murder  of  Absyrtus.  For  in  the  ship  l  which  was 
built  under  the  care  of  warlike  Minerva — the  first 
to  speed  through  the  untried  seas — wicked  Medea 
fleeing  her  forsaken  sire  brought  to  a  haven  her 
oars,  they  say,  in  these  waters.  Him  in  the  distance 
the  lookout  on  the  lofty  hill  espied  and  said,  "  A 
stranger  approaches  from  Colchis  ;  I  recognize  the 
sails  ! 

13  While  the  Minyae  2  are  all  excitement,  while  the 
cable  is  loosed  from  the  shore,  while  the  anchor 
is  being  raised  following  their  nimble  hands,  the 
Colchian  maid  conscious  of  her  guilt  smote  her 
breast  with  a  hand  that  had  dared  and  was  to  dare 
many  things  unspeakable,  and  though  her  heart 
still  retained  its  great  boldness,  there  was  a  pallor  of 
dismay  upon  the  girl's  face. 

19  And  so  at  the  sight  of  the  approaching  sails,  she 
said,  "  We  are  caught  !  I  must  delay  my  father 
by  some  trick  !  "  As  she  was  seeking  what  to  do, 
turning  her  countenance  on  all  things,  she  chanced 
to  bend  her  gaze  upon  her  brother.  When  aware  of 
his  presence  she  exclaimed,  "  The  victory  is  mine  ! 
His  death  shall  save  me  !  "  Forthwith  while  he  in 
his  ignorance  feared  no  such  attack  she  pierced  his 
innocent  side  with  the  hard  sword.  Then  she  tore  him 
limb  from  limb,  scattering  the  fragments  of  his  body 
throughout  the  fields  so  that  they  must  be  sought  in 
many  places.  And  to  apprise  her  father  she  placed 
upon  a  lofty  rock  the  pale  hands  and  gory  head. 
*  The  Argonauts. 

185 


OVID 

ut  genitor  luctuque  novo  tardetur  et,  artus 
dum  legit  extinctos,  triste  moretur '  iter. 

inde  Tomis  2  dictus  locus  hie,  quia  fertur  in  illo 
membra  soror  fratris  consecuisse  sui. 


X. 

Siquis  adhuc  istic  meminit  Nasonis  adempti, 

et  superest  sine  me  nomen  in  urbe  meum, 
suppositum  stellis  numquam  tangentibus  aequor 

me  sciat  in  media  vivere  barbaria. 
5  Sauromatae  cingunt,  fera  gens,  Bessique  Getaeque. 

quam  non  ingenio  nomina  digna  meo  ! 
dum  tamen  aura  tepet,  medio  defendimur  Histro  : 

ille  suis  liquidus  3  bella  repellit  aquis. 
at  cum  tristis  hiems  squalentia  protulit  ora, 
10      terraque  marmoreo  est  Candida  facta  gelu, 
dum  prohibet 4  Boreas  et  nix  habitare  sub  Arcto, 

turn  patet  has  gentes  axe  tremente  premi. 
nix  iacet,  et  iactam  ne  5  sol  pluviaeque  resolvant,6 

indurat  Boreas  perpetuamque  facit. 
15  ergo  ubi  delicuit  nondum  prior,  altera  venit, 

et  solet  in  multis  bima  manere  locis  ; 
tantaque  commoti  vis  est  Aquilonis,  ut  altas 

aequet  humo  turres  tectaque  rapta  ferat. 
pellibus  et  sutis  arcent  mala  frigora  bracis, 
20      oraque  de  toto  corpore  sola  patent, 
saepe  sonant  moti  glacie  pendente  capilli, 

et  nitet  inducto  Candida  barba  gelu  ; 

1  retardet  2  tomus  (thomus)  rel  tomos 

8  liquidis  *  patet  et :   prohibet  Owen 

6  ne]  nee  6  resolvunt  corr.  Ehwald 

136 


TRISTIA,  III.  ix.  31— x.  22 

Thus  was  the  sire  delayed  by  his  fresh  grief,  lingering, 
while  he  gathered  those  lifeless  limbs,  on  a  journey 
of  sorrow. 

33  So  was  this  place  called  Tomis  because  here,  they 
say,  the  sister  cut  to  pieces  her  brother's  body.1 

X.  THE  RIGOURS  OF  TOMIS 

If  there  be  still  any  there  who  remembers  banished 
Naso,  if  my  name  without  me  still  survives  in  the 
city,  let  him  know  that  beneath  the  stars  which 
never  touch  the  sea  I  am  living  in  the  midst  of  the 
barbarian  world.  About  me  are  the  Sauromatae,  a 
cruel  race,  the  Bessi,  and  the  Getae,  names  how  un- 
worthy of  my  talent  !  Yet  while  the  warm  breezes 
blow  we  are  defended  by  the  interposing  Hister  ; 
with  the  flood  of  his  waters  he  repels  wars.  But 
when  grim  winter  has  thrust  forth  his  squalid  face, 
and  the  earth  is  marble-white  with  frost,  while  Boreas 
and  the  snow  prevent  life  under  the  Great  Bear,  then 
'tis  clear  that  these  tribes  are  hard  pressed  by  the 
shivering  pole.  The  snow  lies  continuously,  and  once 
fallen,  neither  sun  nor  rains  may  melt  it,  for  Boreas 
hardens  and  renders  it  eternal.  So  when  an  earlier 
fall  is  not  yet  melted  another  has  come,  and  in  many 
places  'tis  wont  to  remain  for  two  years.  So  mighty 
is  the  power  of  Aquilo,  when  once  he  is  aroused,  that 
he  levels  high  towers  to  the  ground  and  sweeps  away 
buildings.  With  skins  and  stitched  breeches  they 
keep  out  the  evils  of  the  cold  ;  of  the  whole  body 
only  the  face  is  exposed.  Often  their  hair  tinkles 
with  hanging  ice  and  their  beards  glisten  white  with 

1  Ovid  derives  Tom  is  (Tomi)  from  r^w,  "  to  cut." 

137 


OVID 

nudaque  consistunt,  forniam  servantia  testae, 

vina,  nee  hausta  meri,  sed  data  frusta  bibunt. 
25  quid  loquar,  ut  vincti  concrescant  frigore  rivi, 

deque  lacu  fragiles  effodiantur  aquae  ? 
ipse,  papyrifero  qui  non  angustior  amne 

miscetur  vasto  multa  per  ora  freto, 
caeruleos  ventis  latices  durantibus,  Hister 
30      congelat  et  tectis  in  mare  serpit  aquis  ; 

quaque  rates  ierant,  pedibus  nuiic  itur,  et  undas 

frigore  concretas  ungula  pulsat  equi  ; 
perque  novos  pontes,  subter  labentibus  undis, 

ducunt  Sarmatici  barbara  plaustra  boves. 
35  vix  equidem  credar,  sed,  cum  sint  praemia  falsi 

nulla,  ratam  debet  testis  habere  fidem  : 
vidimus  ingentem  glacie  consistere  pontum, 

lubricaque  inmotas  testa  premebat  aquas, 
nee  vidisse  sat  est ;  durum  calcavimus  aequor, 
40      undaque  non  udo  sub  pede  summa  fuit. 
si  tibi  tale  fretum  quondam,  Leandre,  fuisset, 

non  foret  angustae  mors  tua  crimen  aquae, 
turn  neque  se  pandi  possunt  delphines  in  auras 

tollere  ;  conantes  dura  coercet  hierns  ; 
45  et  quamvis  Boreas  iactatis  insonet  alis, 

fluctus  in  obsesso  gurgite  nullus  erit  ; 
inclusaeque  gelu  stabunt  in  marmore  puppes, 

nee  potent  rigidas  findere  remus  aquas, 
vidimus  in  glacie  pisces  haerere  ligatos, 
50      sed  pars  ex  illis  turn  quoque  viva  fuit. 
sive  igitur  nimii  Boreae  vis  saeva  marinas, 

sive  redundatas  flumine  cogit  aquas, 
protinus  aequato  siccis  Aquilonibus  Histro 

invehitur  celeri  barbarus  liostis  equo  ; 

1  Cf.  the  tales  of  serving  whisky  in  the  Klondike 
chunks  "  !  8  The  Nile. 

138 


TRISTIA,  III.  x.  23-54 

the  mantle  of  frost.  Exposed  wine  stands  upright, 
retaining  the  shape  of  the  jar,  and  they  drink,  not 
draughts  of  wine,  but  fragments  served  them  !  l 

25  Why  tell  of  brooks  frozen  fast  with  the  cold  and 
how  brittle  water  is  dug  out  of  the  pool  ?  The  very 
Hister,  not  narrower  than  the  papyrus-bearing  river,2 
mingling  with  the  vast  deep  through  many  mouths, 
freezes  as  the  winds  stiffen  his  dark  flood,  and  winds 
its  way  into  the  sea  with  covered  waters.  Where  ships 
had  gone  before  now  men  go  on  foot  and  the  waters 
congealed  •  with  cold  feel  the  hoof-beat  of  the  horse. 
Across  the  new  bridge,  above  the  gliding  current,  are 
drawn  by  Sarmatian  oxen  the  carts  of  the  barbarians. 
I  may  scarce  hope  for  credence,  but  since  there  is  no 
reward  for  a  falsehood,  the  witness  ought  to  be  believed 
— I  have  seen  the  vast  sea  stiff  with  ice,  a  slippery 
shell  holding  the  water  motionless.  And  seeing  is  not 
enough;  I  have  trodden  the  frozen  sea,  and  the  surface 
lay  beneath  an  unwetted  foot.  If  thou,  Leander, 
hadst  once  had  such  a  sea,  thy  death  would  not  have 
been  a  charge  against  the  narrow  waters.  At  such 
times  the  curving  dolphins  cannot  launch  themselves 
into  the  air  ;  if  they  try,  stern  winter  checks  them  ; 
and  though  Boreas  may  roar  and  toss  his  wings,  there 
will  be  no  wave  on  the  beleaguered  flood.  Shut  in 
by  the  cold  the  ships  will  stand  fast  in  the  marble 
surface  nor  will  any  oar  be  able  to  cleave  the  stiffened 
waters.  I  have  seen  fish  clinging  fast  bound  in  the 
ice,  yet  some  even  then  still  lived. 

61  So  whether  the  cruel  violence  of  o'ermighty 
Boreas  congeals  the  waters  of  the  sea  or  the  full  waters 
of  the  river,  forthwith  when  the  Hister  has  been 
levelled  by  the  freezing  Aquilo  the  barbarian  enemy 
with  his  swift  horses  rides  to  the  attack — an  enemy 

139 


OVID 

65  hostis  equo  pollens  longeque  volante  sagitta 

vicinam  late  depopulatur  humum. 
diffugiunt  alii,  nullisque  tuentibus  agros 

incustoditae  diripiuntur  opes, 
ruris  opes  parvae,  pecus  et  stridentia  plaustra, 
60      et  quas  divitias  incola  pauper  habet. 

pars  agitur  vinctis  post  tergum  capta  lacertis, 

respiciens  frustra  rura  Laremque  suum  : 
pars  cadit  hamatis  misere  confixa  sagittis  : 

nam  volucri  ferro  tinctile  virus  inest. 
65  quae  nequeunt  secum  ferre  aut  abducere,  perdunt, 

et  cremat  insontes  hostica  flamma  casas. 
tune  quoque,  cum  pax  est,  trepidant  formidine  belli, 

nee  quisquam  presso  vomere  sulcat  humum. 
aut  videt  aut  metuit  locus  hie,  quern  non  videt, 

hostem  ; 
70      cessat  iners  rigido  terra  relicta  situ. 

non  hie  pampinea  dulcis  latet  uva  sub  umbra, 

nee  cumulant  altos  fervida  musta  lacus. 
poma  negat  regio,  nee  haberet  Acontius  in  quo 

scriberet  hie  dominae  verba  legenda  suae. 
76  aspiceres 1  nudos  sine  fronde,  sine  arbore,  campos  : 

heu  loca  feliei  non  adeunda  viro  ! 
ergo  tarn  late  pateat  cum  maximus  orbis, 
haec  est  in  poenam  terra  reperta  meam ! 


XL 

Si  quis  es,  insultes  qui  casibus,  improbe,  nostris, 
meque  reum  dempto  fine  cruentus  agas, 

natus  es  e  scopulis  et  pastus  lacte  ferino, 
et  dicam  silices  pectus  habere  tuum. 

1  aspiceret 
HO 


TRISTIA,  III.  x.  55— xi.  4 

strong  in  steeds  and  in  far  flying  arrows — and  lays 
waste  far  and  wide  the  neighbouring  soil.  Some  flee, 
and  with  none  to  protect  their  lands  their  unguarded 
resources  are  plundered,  the  small  resources  of  the 
country,  flocks  and  creaking  carts — all  the  wealth 
the  poor  peasant  has.  Some  are  driven,  with  arms 
bound  behind  them,  into  captivity,  gazing  back  in 
vain  upon  their  farms  and  their  homes  ;  some  fall 
in  agony  pierced  with  barbed  shafts,  for  there  is  a 
stain  of  poison  upon  the  winged  steel.  What  they 
cannot  carry  or  lead  away  they  destroy,  and  the 
hostile  flame  burns  the  innocent  hovels.  Even  when 
peace  prevails,  there  is  timorous  dread  of  war,  nor 
does  any  man  furrow  the  soil  with  down-pressed 
share.  A  foe  this  region  either  sees  or  fears  when 
it  does  not  see  ;  idle  lies  the  soil  abandoned  in  stark 
neglect.  Not  here,  the  sweet  grape  lying  hidden  in 
the  leafy  shade  nor  the  frothing  must  brimming  the 
deep  vats  !  Fruits  are  denied  in  this  region  nor  here 
would  Acontius  have  anything  on  which  to  write 
the  words  for  his  sweetheart l  to  read.  One  may 
see  naked  fields,  leafless,  treeless — a  place,  alas  1  no 
fortunate  man  should  visit.  This  then,  though  the 
great  world  is  so  broad,  is  the  land  discovered  for 
my  punishment  ! 

XI.  To  AN  ENEMY 

Whoever  thou  art  that  dost  mock,  wicked  man, 
at  my  misfortunes,  endlessly  bringing  an  indictment 
against  me,  thirsting  for  my  blood,  born  art  thou  of 
crags  and  fed  on  the  milk  of  wild  beasts,  and  I  will 
assert  that  thy  breast  is  made  of  flint.  What  farther 

1  Cydippe. 

141 


OVID 

5  quis  gradus  ulterior,  quo  se  tua  porrigat  ira, 
restat  ?  quidve  meis  cernis  abesse  mails  ? 
barbara  me  tellus  et  inhospita  h'tora  Ponti 
cumque  suo  Borea  Maenalis  Ursa  videt. 
nulla  mihi  cum  gente  fera  commercia  linguae  : 
10      omnia  solliciti  sunt  loca  plena  metus. 

utque  fugax  avidis  cervus  deprensus  ab  ursis, 

cinctave  montanis  ut  pavet  agna  lupis, 
sic  ego  belligeris  a  gentibus  undique  saeptus 
terreor,  hoste  meum  paene  premente  latus. 
15  utque  sit  exiguum  poenae,  quod  coniuge  cara, 

quod  patria  careo  pignoribusque  meis  : 
ut  mala  nulla  feram  nisi  nudam  Caesaris  iram, 

nuda  parum  nobis  Caesaris  ira  mali  est  ? 
et  tamen  est  aliquis,  qui  vulnera  cruda  retractet, 
20      solvat  et  in  mores  ora  diserta  meos. 
in  causa  facili  cuivis  licet  esse  diserto, 

et  minimae  vires  frangere  quassa  valent. 
subruere  est  arces  et  stantia  moenia  virtus  : 

quamlibet  ignavi  praecipitata  premunt. 
25  non  sum  ego  quod1  fueram.     quid  inanem  proteris 

umbram  ? 

quid  cinerem  saxis  bustaque  nostra  petis  ? 
Hector  erat  tune  cum  bello  certabat ;  at  idem 

vinctus  ad  Haemonios  non  erat  Hector  equos. 
me  quoque,  quern  noras  olim,  non  esse  memento  : 
30      ex  illo  superant  haec  simulacra  viro. 

quid  simulacra,  ferox,  dictis  incessis  amaris  ? 

parce,  precor,  Manes  sollicitare  meos  ! 
omnia  vera  puta  mea  crimina,  nil  sit  in  illis, 

quod  magis  errorem  quam  scelus  esse  putes, 
35  pendimus  en  profugi — satia  tua  pectora — poenas 
exilioque  graves  exiliique  loco. 
1  sum  ego  qui 
142 


TRISTIA,  III.  xi.  5-36 

point  remains  to  which  thy  anger  may  extend  ? 
What  dost  thou  see  lacking  to  my  woes  ?  A  bar- 
barous land,  the  unfriendly  shores  of  Pontus,  and  the 
Maenalian  bear  with  her  companion  Boreas  behold 
me.  No  interchange  of  speech  have  I  with  the  wild 
people  ;  all  places  are  charged  with  anxiety  and  fear. 
As  a  timid  stag  caught  by  ravenous  bears  or  a  lamb 
surrounded  by  the  mountain  wolves  is  stricken  with 
terror,  so  am  I  in  dread,  hedged  about  on  all  sides  by 
warlike  tribes,  the  enemy  almost  pressing  against 
my  side.  Were  it  a  slight  punishment  that  I  am 
deprived  of  my  dear  wife,  my  native  land,  and  my 
loved  ones  ;  were  I  supporting  no  ills  but  the  naked 
wrath  of  Caesar,  is  the  naked  wrath  of  Caesar  too 
small  an  ill  ?  Yet,  despite  this,  someone  there  is  to 
handle  anew  my  raw  wounds,  to  move  eloquent  lips 
against  my  character  !  In  an  easy  cause  anybody 
may  be  eloquent  ;  the  slightest  strength  is  enough 
to  break  what  is  already  shattered.  To  overthrow 
citadels  and  upstanding  walls  is  valour  ;  the  worst 
of  cowards  press  hard  upon  what  is  already  fallen.  I 
am  not  what  I  was.  Why  dost  thou  trample  on  an 
empty  shadow  ?  Why  attack  with  stones  my  ashes 
and  my  tomb  ?  Hector  was  alive  whilst  he  fought 
in  war,  but  once  bound  to  the  Haemonian  steeds 
he  was  not  Hector.  I  too,  whom  thou  knewest  in 
former  times,  no  longer  exist,  remember  ;  of  that 
man  there  remains  but  this  wraith.  WThy,  cruel  man, 
dost  thou  assail  a  wraith  with  bitter  words  ?  Cease, 
I  beg,  to  harass  my  shade.  Consider  all  my  crimes 
real,  let  there  be  nothing  in  them  that  thou  couldst 
think  rather  a  mistake  than  a  crime — lo  !  a  fugitive 
I  am  paying  (let  this  sate  thy  heart)  a  penalty  heavy 
through  exile  and  the  place  of  that  exile.  To  a 

14-3 


OVID 

carnifici  fortuna  potest  mea  flenda  videri : 

et  tamen  est  uno  iudice  mersa  parum. 
saevior  es  tristi  Busiride,  saevior  illo, 
40      qui  falsum  lento  torruit  igne  bovem, 

quique  bovem  Sieulo  fertur  donasse  tyranno, 

et  dictis  artes  conciliasse  suas  : 
44  munere  in  hoc,  rex,  est  usus,  sed  imagine  maior, 

nee  sola  est  operis  forma  probanda  mei. 
45  aspicis  a  dextra  latus  hoc  adapertile  tauri  ? 
hac1  tibi,  quern  perdes,  coniciendus  erit. 
protinus  inclusum  lentis  carbonibus  ure  : 

mugiet,  et  veri  vox  erit  ilia  bovis. 
pro  quibus  inventis,  ut  munus  nmnere  penses, 
50      da,  precor,  ingenio  praemia  digna  meo." 

dixerat.     at  Phalaris  "  poenae  mirande  repertor, 

ipse  tuum  praesens  imbue  "  dixit  "  opus." 
nee  mora,  monstratis  crudeliter  ignibus  ustus 

exhibuit  geminos  ore  gemente  sonos. 
65  quid  mihi  cum  Siculis  inter  Scythiamque  Getasque  ? 

ad  te,  quisquis  is  es,  nostra  querella  redit. 
utque  sitim  nostro  possis  explere  cruore, 

quantaque  vis,  avido  gaudia  corde  feras, 
tot  mala  sum  fugiens  tellure,  tot  aequore  passus. 
60      te  quoque  ut  auditis  posse  dolere  putem. 
crede  mihi,  si  sit  nobis  collatus  Ulixes, 

Neptuni 2  minor  est  quam  lovis  ira  fuit. 
ergo  quicumque  es,  rescindere  crimina  noli, 

deque  gravi  duras  vulnere  tolle  manus  ; 
65  utque  meae  famam  tenuent  oblivia  culpae, 
facta  cicatricem  ducere  nostra  sine  ; 

1  hie  *  neptunique  corr.  r 

1  Perillus. 2  PhalarT^ 
3  i.e.  at  once  the  screams  of  a  man  and  the  bellowing  of 
a  bull. 


TRISTIA,  III.  xi.  37-66 

hangman  my  fate  might  seem  pitiful,  yet  there  is 
one  judge  who  thinks  it  sunk  not  deep  enough  ! 

39  Thou  art  more  cruel  than  harsh  Busiris,  more 
cruel  than  he  l  who  heated  the  artificial  bull  over  a 
slow  fire  and  gave  the  bull,  they  say,  to  the  Sicilian 
lord  2  commending  his  work  of  art  with  the  words  : 
"  In  this  gift,  O  King,  there  is  profit,  greater  than 
appears,  for  not  the  appearance  alone  of  my  work  is 
worthy  of  praise.  Seest  thou  on  the  right  that  the 
bull's  flank  may  be  opened  ?  Through  this  thou  must 
thrust  whomsoever  thou  wouldst  destroy.  Forth- 
with shut  him  in  and  roast  him  over  slow-burning 
coals  :  he  will  bellow,  and  that  will  be  the  voice  of  a 
true  bull.  For  this  invention  pay  gift  with  gift, 
and  give  me,  I  pray  thee,  a  reward  worthy  of  my 
genius."  Thus  he  spake.  But  Phalaris  said,  "  Mar- 
vellous inventor  of  punishment,  dedicate  in  person 
thine  own  work  !  "  At  once  roasted  by  the  fires  to 
which  he  had  himself  cruelly  pointed  the  way  he 
uttered  with  groaning  lips  sounds  twofold.3 

55  What  have  I,  in  Scythia  among  the  Getae,  to  do 
with  Sicilians  ?  To  thee,  whoever  thou  art,  my 
complaint  returns.  That  thou  mayst  sate  thy  thirst 
in  my  blood  and  carry  as  much  joy  as  thou  wilt  in 
thy  greedy  heart,  I  have  endured  so  many  woes  by 
land  in  my  flight,  so  many  by  sea,  that  I  think  even 
thou  canst  feel  pain  at  the  hearing  of  them.  I 
assure  thee,  if  Ulysses  should  be  compared  with  me, 
Neptune's  wrath  is  less  than  Jove's  has  been.  So 
then,  whoever  thou  art,  do  not  open  again  the  charges 
against  me,  remove  thy  hard  hands  from  my  danger- 
ous wound,  and  that  forgetfulness  may  lessen  the  ill 
repute  of  my  fault,  permit  a  scar  to  cover  my  deed  ; 

L  145 


OVID 

humanaeque  memor  sortis,  quae  tollit  eosdem 
et  premit,  incertas  ipse  verere  vices. 

et  quoniam,  fieri  quod  numquam  posse  putavi, 
70      est  tibi  de  rebus  maxima  cura  meis, 

non  est  quod  timeas  :  fortuna  miserrima  nostra  est, 
omne  trahit  secum  Caesaris  ira  malum. 

quod  magis  ut  liqueat,  neve  hoc  ego  fingere  credar, 
ipse  velim  poenas  experiare  meas. 

XII. 

Frigora  iam  Zephyri  minuunt,  annoque  peracto 

longior  antiquis  visa  Maeotis  bienis, 
inpositamque  sibi  qui  non  bene  pertulit  Hellen, 

tempora  nocturnis  aequa  diurna  facit. 
5  iam  violam  puerique  legunt  hilarcsque  pucllae, 

rustica  quae  nullo  nata  serente  venit ; 
prataque  pubescunt  variorum  More  colorum, 

indocilique  loquax  gutture  vernat  avis  ; 
utque  malae  matris  crimen  deponat  hirundo 
10      sub  trabibus  cunas  tectaque  parva  facit  : 
herbaque,  quae  latuit  Cerealibus  obruta  sulcis, 

exit  et  expandit  molle  cacumen  humo  ; 
quoque  loco  est  vitis,  de  palmite  gemma  movetur  : 

nam  procul  a  Getico  litore  vitis  abest ; 
15  quoque  loco  est  arbor,  turgescit  in  arbore  ramus  : 

nam  procul  a  Geticis  finibus  arbor  abest. 
otia  nunc  istic,  iunctisque  ex  ordine  ludis 

cedunt  verbosi  garrula  bella  fori. 
lusus l  equi  nunc  est,  levibus  nunc  luditur  armis, 
20      nunc  pila,  nunc  celeri  volvitur  orbe  trochus  ; 
1  usus 

1  The  constellation  of  the  Ham— the  month  of  March. 

2  Procne. 
146 


TRISTIA,  III.  xi.  67— xn.  20 

remember  human  fate,  which  lifts  or  lowers  the  same 
men,  and  fear  for  thyself  uncertain  change.  And 
since — as  I  never  thought  possible — thou  dost  take 
the  greatest  interest  in  my  affairs,  there  is  naught 
for  thee  to  fear  :  my  fate  is  most  wretched,  Caesar's 
wrath  draws  with  it  every  ill.  That  this  may  be 
clearer  and  I  be  not  thought  to  feign  it,  I  pray  that 
in  thine  own  person  thou  mayst  try  my  punishment. 


XII.  SPRINGTIME  IN  TOMIS 

The  cold  is  now  weakening  beneath  the  zephyr's 
breath  and  at  the  year's  close  the  Maeotic  winter  has 
seemed  more  endless  than  those  of  old,  and  he  l  who 
bore  Helle  but  ill  upon  his  back  now  makes  equal 
the  time  of  night  and  day.  Now  merry  boys  and 
girls  are  plucking  the  violets  that  spring  up  unsown 
in  the  fields,  the  meadows  are  abloom  with  many- 
coloured  flowers,  the  chatty  birds  from  unschooled 
throats  utter  a  song  of  spring,  and  the  swallow,  to 
put  off  the  name  of  evil  mother,-'  builds  beneath  the 
rafters  the  tiny  house  that  cradles  her  young.  The 
grain  that  lay  in  hiding  beneath  the  furrows  comes 
forth,  unfolding  from  the  soil  its  tender  tips.  Wher- 
ever grows  the  vine,  the  bud  is  just  pushing  from  the 
shoot  (but  the  vine  grows  far  from  the  Getic  shore  !), 
and  wherever  grows  the  tree,  the  branches  are  just 
budding  (but  the  tree  grows  far  from  the  Getic  shore !). 
In  yonder  land  there  is  now  rest,  and  the  noisy  wars 
of  the  wordy  forum  are  giving  place  to  festivals  one 
after  another  ;  now  there  is  sport  with  horses,  now 
there  is  play  with  light  arms,  with  the  ball  or  the 

147 


OVID 

nunc  ubi  perfusa  est  oleo  labente  iuvsntus, 

defessos  artus  Virgine  tinguit  aqua, 
scaena  viget  studiisque  favor  distantibus  ardet, 

proque  tribus  resonant  terna  theatra  foris. 
25  o  quater,  o  quotiens1  non  est  numerare,  beatum, 

non  interdicta  cui  licet  urbe  frui  ! 
at  mihi  sentitur  nix  verno  sole  soluta, 

quaeque  lacu  durae  non  fodiantur  aquae  : 
nee  mare  concrescit  glacie,  nee,  ut  ante,  per  Histrum 
30      stridula  Sauromates  plaustra  bubulcus  agit. 
incipient 2  aliquae  tamen  hue  adnare  carinae, 

hospitaque  in  Ponti  litore  puppis  erit. 
sedulus  occurram  nautae,  dictaque  salute, 

quid  veniat,  quaeram,  quisve  quibusve  locis. 
35  ille  quidem  mi  rum  ni  de  regione  propinqua 

non  nisi  vicinas  tutus  ararit 3  aquas, 
rarus  ab  Italia  tantum  mare  navita  transit, 
litora  rarus  in  haec  portubus  orba  venit. 
sive  tamen  Graeca  scierit,  sive  ille  Latina 
40      voce  loqui — certe  gratior  huius  erit ; 

fas    quoque    ab    ore    freti    longaeque    Propontidos 

undis 

hue  aliquem  certo  vela  dedisse  Noto — 
quisquis  is  est,  memori  rumorem  voce  referre 

et  fieri  famae  parsque  gradusque  potest. 
45  is,  precor,  auditos  possit  narrare  triumphos 

Caesaris  et  Latio  reddita  vota  lovi, 
teque,  rebellatrix,  tandem,  Germania,  magni 
triste  caput  pedibus  supposuisse  ducis. 

1  quantum  et  vel  quantum  o  vel  quater  et 
2  incipiunt  3  arabit  vel  araret  corr.  Heinsius 

1  From  the  aqueduct  called  Virgo. 
14*8 


TRISTIA,  III.  xii.  21-48 

swift  circling  hoop  ;  now  the  young  men,  reeking  of 
slippery  oil,  are  bathing  wearied  limbs  in  Virgin 
water.1  The  stage  is  full  of  life,  and  partizanship 
ablaze  with  warring  passions,  and  three  theatres 
roar  in  the  place  of  three  forums.2  Ah  !  four  times 
happy — yes,  countless  times  happy — is  he  who  may 
enjoy  the  unforbidden  city  I 

27  But  mine  it  is  to  feel  the  snow  melted  by  the 
spring  sun  and  water  which  is  not  dug  all  hard  from 
the  pool.  The  sea,  too,  is  no  longer  solid  with  ice, 
nor  as  before  does  the  Sauromatian  herdsman  drive 
his  creaking  wagon  across  the  Ister.  Yet  spite  of 
all  some  ships  will  begin  to  voyage  hither,  and  soon 
there  will  be  a  friendly  bark  on  Poiitus'  shore. 
Eagerly  I  shall  run  to  meet  the  mariner  and  when 
I've  greeted  him,  shall  ask  why  he  comes,  who  and 
from  what  place  he  is.  It  will  be  strange,  indeed, 
if  he  is  not  from  a  neighbouring  land — one  who  has 
ploughed  no  seas  but  those  near  by.  For  rarely  does 
a  sailor  cross  the  wide  seas  from  Italy,  rarely  visit 
this  harbourless  shore.  Yet  if  he  knows  how  to 
speak  with  the  voice  of  Greek  or  Roman  (this  last 
will  surely  be  the  sweeter,  for  'tis  possible,  too,  that 
from  the  mouth  of  the  strait  and  the  waiters  of  far 
Propontis  someone  has  set  sail  hither  with  a  steady 
south  wind),  whoever  he  is,  he  may  be  one  to  tell 
faithfully  some  rumour,  one  to  share  and  pass  on 
some  report.  May  he,  I  pray,  have  power  to  tell 
of  Caesar 's  triumphs  and  vows  paid  to  Jupiter  of  the 
Latins  ;  that  thou,  rebellious  Germany,  at  length 
hast  lowered  thy  sorrowing  head  beneath  the  foot 

*  The  three  theatres  were  those  of  Pompey,  Marcellus, 
and  Balbus  ;  the  three  forums  were  the  forum  Romanum, 
lulium,  and  Augusti. 

14-9 


OVID 

haec  mihi  qui  referet,  quae  non  vidisse  dolebo, 
50      ille  meae  domui  protinus  hospes  erit. 

ei  mihi,  iamne  domus  Scythico  Nasonis  in  orbe  est  ? 

iamque  suum  mihi  dat  pro  Lare  poena  locum  ? 
di  facile  ut  Caesar  non  hie  penetrale  domumque, 

hospitium  poenae  sed  velit  esse  meae. 


XIII. 

Ecce  supervacuus — quid  enim  fuit  utile  gigni  ? — 

ad  sua  Natalis  tempora  noster  adest. 
dure,  quid  ad  miseros  veniebas  exulis  annos  ? 

debueras  illis  inposuisse  modum. 
5  si  tibi  cura  mei,  vel  si  pudor  ullus  inesset, 

non  ultra  patriam  me  sequerere  meam, 
quoque  loco  primum  tibi  sum  male  cognitus  infans, 

illo  temptasses  ultimus  esse  mihi, 
inque  relinquendo,  quod  idem  fecere  sodales, 
10      tu  quoque  dixisses  tristis  in  urbe  "  vale." 

quid  tibi  cum  Ponto  ?   num  te  quoque  Caesaris  ira 

extremam  gelidi  misit  in  orbis  humum  ? 
scilicet  expectas  soliti  tibi  moris  honorem, 

pendcat  ex  umeris  vestis  ut  alba  meis, 
15  fumida  cingatur  florentibus  ara  coronis, 

micaque  sollemni  turis  in  igne  sonet, 
libaque  dem  proprie  genitale  notantia  tempus, 

concipiamque  bonas  ore  favente  preces. 

1  Tiberius,  who  took  the  field  against  the  Germans  after 
the  defeat  of  Yarns,  A.n.  9. 

2  The  word  domua  (cf.  Lare,  penetrale)   implies  a   per- 
manent abode.     The  poet  prays  that  Scythia  may  be  merely 
a  temporary  residence  (hospitivm). 

150 


TRIST1A,  III.  xn.  49— xni.  18 

of  our  leader.1  He  who  tells  me  such  things  as  these 
— things  it  will  grieve  me  that  I  have  not  seen — shall 
be  forthwith  a  guest  within  my  home.  Ah  me  !  is 
Naso's  home  2  now  in  the  Scythian  world,  and  does  my 
punishment  assign  me  its  own  land  as  an  abode  ? 
Ye  gods,  give  Caesar  the  will  that  not  here  may  be 
my  hearth  and  home  but  only  the  hostelry  of  my 
punishment  ! 


XIII.  A  BIRTHDAY  AT  TOMIS 

Lo  !  to  no  purpose — for  what  profit  was  there  in 
my  birth  ? — my  birthday  god  3  attends  his  anniver- 
sary. Cruel  one,  why  hast  thou  come  to  increase  the 
wretched  years  of  an  exile  ?  To  them  thou  shouldst 
have  put  an  end.  Haclst  thou  any  love  for  me  or 
any  sense  of  shame,  thou  wouldst  not  be  following  me 
beyond  my  native  land,  and  where  first  I  was  known 
by  thee  as  an  ill-starred  child,  there  shouldst  thou 
have  tried  to  be  my  last,  and  at  the  parting,  like  my 
friends,  thou  too  in  the  city  shouldst  have  said  in 
sorrow  "  Farewell." 

11  What  hast  thou  to  do  with  Pontus  ?  Is  it  that 
Caesar's  wrath  sent  thee  too  to  the  remotest  land  of 
the  world  of  cold  ?  Thou  awaitest,  I  suppose,  thine 
honour  in  its  wonted  guise  :  a  white  robe  hanging 
from  my  shoulders,  a  smoking  altar  garlanded  with 
chaplets,  the  grains  of  incense  snapping  in  the  holy 
fire,  and  myself  offering  the  cakes  that  mark  my 
birthday  and  framing  kindly  petitions  with  pious 

3  The  genius  natal  is  to  whom  the  Roman  offered  .sacrifice 
on  his  birthday.  The  genius  was  believed  to  be  a  spiritual 
counterpart  of  the  individual. 

151 


OVID 

non  ita  sum  positus,  nee  sunt  ea  tempora  nobis, 
20      adventu  possim  laetus  ut  esse  tuo. 
funeris  ara  mihi,  ferali  cincta  eupressu,1 

convenit  et  structis  flamma  parata  rogis. 
nee  dare  tura  libet  nil  exorantia  divos, 

in  tantis  subeunt  nee  bona  verba  malis. 
25  si  tamen  est  aliquid  nobis  hac  luce  petendum, 

in  loca  ne  redeas  amplius  ista,  precor, 
dum  me  terrarum  pars  paene  novissima,  Pontus, 

Euxinus  falso  nomine  dictus,  habet. 


XIV. 

Cultor  et  antistes  doetorum  sancte  virorum, 

quid  facis,  ingenio  semper  amice  meo  ? 
ecquid,  ut  incolumem  quondam  celebrare  solebas, 

nunc  quoque,  ne  videar  totus  abesse,  caves  ? 
6  suscipis 2  exceptis  ecquid  mea  carmina  solis 

Artibus,  artifici  quae  nocuere  suo  ? 
immo  ita  fac,  quaeso,  vatum  studiose  novorum, 

quaque  potes,  retine  corpus  in  urbe  meum. 
est  fuga  dicta  mihi,  non  est  fuga  dicta  libellis, 
10      qui  domini  poenam  non  meruere  sui. 

saepe  per  externas  3  profugus  pater  exulat  oras, 

urbe  tamen  natis  exulis  esse  licet. 
Palladis  exemplo  de  me  sine  matre  creata 

carmina  sunt ;     stirps  haec  progeniesque  mea  est. 
16  hanc  tibi  commendo,  quae  quo  magis  orba  parente 

est, 
hoc  tibi  tutori  sarcina  maior  erit. 

1  cupresso         2  conficis :  suscipis  5"         8  extremas 
152 


TRISTIA,  III.  xiii.  19— xiv.  16 

lips.  Not  such  is  my  condition,  nor  such  my  hours, 
that  I  can  rejoice  at  thy  coming.  An  altar  of  death 
girdled  with  funereal  cypress  is  suited  to  me  and  a 
flame  made  ready  for  the  up-reared  pyre.  Nor  is  it 
a  pleasure  to  offer  incense  that  wins  nothing  from 
gods,  nor  in  such  misfortunes  do  words  of  good  omen 
come  to  my  lips.  Yet  if  I  must  ask  thee  something 
on  this  day,  return  thou  no  more  to  such  a  land,  I 
pray,  so  long  as  all  but  the  remotest  part  of  the  world, 
the  Pontus,  falsely  called  Euxine,1  possesses  me. 


XIV.  EPILOGUE — TO  AN  UNNAMED  FRIEND 

Cherisher  and  revered  protector  of  learned  men, 
what  doest  thou — thou  that  hast  ever  befriended  my 
genius  ?  As  thou  once  wert  wont  to  extol  me  when 
I  was  in  safety,  now  too  dost  thou  take  heed  that  I 
seern  not  wholly  absent  ?  Dost  thou  harbour  my 
verse  except  only  that  "  Art  "  which  ruined  its 
artificer  ?  Do  so,  I  pray,  thou  patron  of  new  bards  ; 
so  far  as  may  be,  keep  my  body  2  in  the  city.  Exile 
was  decreed  to  me,  exile  was  not  decreed  to  my 
books  ;  they  did  not  deserve  their  master 's  punish- 
ment. Oft  is  a  father  exiled  on  a  foreign  shore,  yet 
may  the  exile's  children  live  in  the  city.  Pallas- 
fashion  3  were  my  verses  born  from  me  without  a 
mother  ;  these  are  my  offspring,  my  family.  These 
I  commend  to  thee ;  the  more  bereft  they  are,  the 
greater  burden  will  they  be  to  thee  their  guardian. 

1  Euxine  means  k'  hospitable,"  cf.  Tr.  iv.  4.  55  f, ;  v.  10.  13 f. 

8  i.e.  my  poems. 
8  Pallas  was  born  from  the  head  of  Zeus. 

153 


OVID 

tres  mihi  sunt  nati  contagia  nostra  secuti : 

cetera  fac  curae  sit  tibi  turba  palam. 
sunt  quoque  mutatae,  ter  quinque  volumina,  formae, 
20      carmina  de  domini  funere  rapta  sui. 

illud  opus  potuit,  si  non  prius  ipse  perissem, 

certius  a  summa  nomen  habere  manu  : 
nunc  incorrectum  populi  pervenit  in  ora, 

in  populi  quicquam  si  tamen  ore  mei  est. 
25  hoc  quoque  nescio  quid  nostris  appone  libellis, 

diverso  missum  quod  tibi  ab  orbe  venit. 
quod  quicumque  leget, — si  quis  leget — aestimet  ante, 

compositum  quo  sit  tempore  quoque  loco, 
aequus  erit  scriptis,  quorum  cognoverit  esse 
30      exilium  tempus  barbariamque  locum  : 
inque  tot  adversis  carmen  mirabitur  ullum 

ducere  me  tristi  sustinuisse  manu. 
ingenium  fregere  meum  mala,  cuius  et  ante 

fons  infecundus  parvaque  vena  fuit. 
35  sed  quaecumque  fuit,  nullo  exercente  refugit, 

et  longo  periit  arida  facta  situ, 
non  hie  librorum,  per  quos  inviter  alarque, 

copia  :  pro  libris  arcus  et  arma  sonant, 
nullus  in  hac  terra,  recitem  si  carmina,  cuius 
40      intellecturis  auribus  utar,  adest ; 

non  quo  secedam  locus  est.     custodia  muri 

summovet  infestos  clausaque  porta  Getas. 
saepe  aliquod  quaere  verbum  nomenque  looumque, 

nee  quisquam  est  a  quo  certior  esse  queam. 
45  dicere  saepe  aliquid  conanti — turpe  fateri ! — 
verba  mihi  desunt  dedidicique  loqui. 

154 


TRISTIA,  III.  xiv.  17-46 

Three  of  my  children  x  have  caught  pollution  from 
me  :  make  the  rest  of  the  flock  openly  thy  care. 
There  are  also  thrice  five  books  on  changing  forms,2 
verses  snatched  from  the  funeral  of  then*  master. 
That  work,  had  I  not  perished  beforehand,  might 
have  gained  a  more  secure  name  from  my  finishing 
hand  :  but  now  unrevised  it  has  come  upon  men's  lips 
• — if  anything  of  mine  is  on  their  lips.  Add  to  my 
books  this  humble  bit  also,  which  comes  to  you 
dispatched  from  a  far-distant  world.  Whoever  reads 
this  (if  anyone  does)  let  him  take  account  beforehand 
at  what  time,  in  what  place  it  was  composed.  He 
will  be  fair-minded  to  writings  which  he  knows  were 
composed  in  time  of  exile,  in  the  barbarian  world  ; 
and  amid  so  many  adverse  circumstances  he  will 
wonder  that  I  had  the  heart  to  write  with  sorrow- 
ing hand  any  poem.  Misfortunes  have  broken 
my  talent  whose  source  was  even  aforetime  unpro- 
ductive and  whose  stream  was  meagre.  But  such 
as  it  was,  with  none  to  exercise  it,  it  has  shrunken 
and  is  lost,  dried  up  by  long  neglect.  Not  here 
have  I  an  abundance  of  books  to  stimulate  and 
nourish  me  :  in  their  stead  is  the  rattle  of  bows 
and  arms.  There  is  nobody  in  this  land,  should 
I  read  my  verse,  of  whose  intelligent  ear  I  might 
avail  myself,  there  is  no  place  to  which  I  may 
withdraw.  The  guard  on  the  wall  and  a  closed 
gate  keep  back  the  hostile  Getae.  Often  I  am 
at  a  loss  for  a  word,  a  name,  a  place,  and  there  is 
none  who  can  inform  me.  Oft  when  I  attempt  some 
utterance — shameful  confession  ! — words  fail  me  : 
I  have  unlearned  my  power  of  speech.  Thracian  and 

1  The  three  books  of  the  Ars  amatoria. 
*  The  Metamorphoses. 

155 


OVID 

Threicio  Scythicoque  fere  *  circumsonor  ore, 

et  videor  Geticis  scribere  posse  modis. 
crede  mihi,  timeo  ne  sint  inmixta  Latinis 
50      inque  meis  scrip tis  Pontica  verba  legas. 
qualemcumque  igitur  venia  dignare  libellum. 
sortis  et  excusa  condicione  meae. 
1  fero 


156 


TR1STIA,  III.  xiv.  47-52 

Scythian  tongues  chatter  on  almost  every  side,  and 
I  think  I  could  write  in  Getic  measure.1  O  believe 
me,  I  fear  that  there  may  be  mingled  with  the  Latin 
in  my  writings  the  language  of  the  Pontus.  Such 
as  my  book  is,  then,  deem  it  worthy  of  indulgence 
and  pardon  it  because  of  the  circumstances  of  my 
fate. 

i  See  Ex  P.  iv.  13.  19  ff. 


157 


LIBER  QUARTUS 
I. 

Siqua  meis  fuerint,  ut  erunt,  vitiosa  libellis, 

excusata  suo  tempore,  lector,  habe. 
exul  eram,  requiesque  mihi,  non  fama  petita  est, 

mens  intenta  suis  ne  foret  usque  malis. 
5  hoc  est  cur  cantet  vinctus  quoque  compede  fossor, 

indocili  numero  cum  grave  mollit  opus, 
cantat  et  innitens  limosae  pronus  harenae, 

adverse  tardam  qui  trahit  amne  ratem  ; 
quique  refert  pariter  lentos  ad  pectora  remos, 
10      in  numerum  pulsa  brachia  pulsat l  aqua, 
fessus  ubi  incubuit  baculo  saxove  resedit 

pastor,  harundineo  carmine  mulcet  oves. 
cantantis  pariter,  pariter  data  pensa  trahentis, 

fallitur  ancillae  decipiturque  labor. 
15  fertur  et  abducta  Lyrneside  tristis  Achilles 

Haemonia  curas  attenuasse  lyra. 
curn  traheret  silvas  Orpheus  et  dura  canendo 

saxa,  bis  amissa  coniuge  maestus  erat. 
me  quoque  Musa  levat  Ponti  loca  iussa  petentem  : 
20      sola  comes  nostrae  perstitit  ilia  fugae  ; 

1  iactat  r 

1  A  flute  was  often  used  to  mark  the  time  for  the  rowers. 

2  Briseis.  3  Eurydice. 

158 


BOOK  IV 
I.  A  PLEA  FOR  INDULGENCE 

Whatever  faults  you  may  find — and  you  will  find 
them — in  my  books,  hold  them  absolved,  reader, 
because  of  the  time  of  their  writing.  I  am  an  exile  ; 
solace,  not  fame,  has  been  my  object — that  my  mind 
dwell  not  constantly  on  its  own  woes.  This  is  why 
even  the  ditcher,  shackled  though  he  be,  resorts  to 
song,  lightening  with  untutored  rhythm  his  heavy 
work.  He  also  sings  who  bends  forward  over  the 
slimy  sand,  towing  against  the  stream  the  slow- 
moving  barge,  or  he  who  pulls  to  his  breast  in  unison 
the  pliant  oars,  timing l  his  arms  with  measured 
strokes  upon  the  water.  The  weary  shepherd 
leaning  upon  his  staff  or  seated  upon  a  rock  soothes 
his  sheep  with  the  drone  of  his  reeds.  At  once 
singing,  at  once  spinning  her  allotted  task,  the  slave 
girl  beguiles  and  whiles  away  her  toil.  They  say 
too  that  when  the  maid  2  of  Lyrnesus  was  taken 
from  him,  sad  Achilles  relieved  his  sorrow  with  the 
Haemonian  lyre.  While  Orpheus  was  drawing  to 
him  the  forests  and  the  hard  rocks  by  his  singing,  he 
was  sorrowing  for  the  wife  3  twice  lost  to  him. 

iy  Me  also  the  Muse  comforted  while  on  my  way 
to  the  appointed  lands  of  Pontus  ;  she  only  was  the 
steadfast  companion  of  my  flight — the  only  one  who 

159 


OVID 

sola  nee  insidias,  Sinti  nee1  militis  ensem, 

nee  mare  nee  ventos  barbariamque  timet. 
scit  quoque,  cum  peril,  quis  me  deceperit  error, 

et  culpam  in  faeto,  non  scelus,  esse  meo, 
25  scilicet  hoc  ipso  nunc  aequa,  quod  obfuit  ante, 

cum  mecurn  iuncti  criminis  acta  rea  est. 
non  equidem  vellem,  quoniam  nocitura  fuerunt, 

Pieridum  sacris  inposuisse  manum. 
sed  nunc  quid  faciam  ?   vis  me  tenet  ipsa  sacrorum, 
30      et  carmen  demens  carmine  laesus  amo. 
sic  nova  Dulichio  lotos  gustata  palato 

illo,  quo  nocuit,  grata  sapore  fuit. 
sentit  amans  sua  damna  fere,  tamen  haeret  in  illis, 

materiam  culpae  persequiturque  suae. 
35  nos  quoque  delectant,  quamvis  nocuere,  libelli, 

quodque  mihi  telum  vulnera  fecit,  amo. 
forsitan  hoc  studium  possit  furor  esse  videri, 

sed  quiddam  furor  hie  utilitatis  habet. 
semper  in  obtutu  mentem  vetat  esse  malorum, 
40      praesentis  casus  inmemoremque  facit. 
utque  suum  Bacche  non  sentit  saucia  vulnus, 

dum  stupet  Idaeis  exululata  modis, 
sic  ubi  mota  calent  viridi  mea  pectora  thyrso, 

altior  humano  spiritus  ille  malo  est. 
45  ille  nee  exilium,  Scythici  nee  litora  ponti, 

ille  nee  iratos  sentit  habere  deos. 
utque  soporiferae  biberem  si  pocula  Lethes, 

temporis  adversi  sic  mihi  sensus  abest. 

1  inter  nee  :  Sinti  nee  Ehwald 


1  A  tribe  mentioned  only  here  by  Ovid,  but  the  text  is 
not  certain. 
160 


TRISTIA,  IV.  i.  21-48 

fears  neither  treachery,  nor  the  brand  of  the  Sintian  1 
soldier,  nor  sea  nor  winds  nor  the  world  of  the  bar- 
barians. She  knows  also  what  mistake  led  me  astray 
at  the  time  of  my  ruin, — that  there  is  fault  in  my 
deed,  but  no  crime.  Doubtless  for  this  very  reason 
is  she  fair  to  me  now  because  she  injured  me  before, 
when  she  was  indicted  with  me  for  a  joint  crime. 
Well  could  I  wish,  since  they  were  destined  to  work 
me  harm,  that  I  had  ne'er  set  hand  to  the  holy  service 
of  the  Pierian  ones.  But  now,  what  am  I  to  do  ? 
The  very  power  of  that  holy  service  grips  me  ;  mad- 
man that  I  am,  though  song  has  injured  me,  'tis  still 
song  that  I  love.  So  the  strange  lotos  tasted  by 
Dulichian  palates  2  gave  pleasure  through  the  very 
savour  which  wrought  harm.  The  lover  is  oft  aware 
of  his  own  ruin  yet  clings  to  it,  pursuing  that  which 
sustains  his  own  fault.  I  also  find  pleasure  in  my 
books  though  they  have  injured  me,  and  I  love  the 
very  weapon  that  made  my  wounds. 

37  Perchance  this  passion  may  seem  madness,  but 
this  madness  has  a  certain  profit  :  it  forbids  the  mind 
to  be  ever  gazing  at  its  woes,  rendering  it  forgetful 
of  present  mischance.  As  the  stricken  Bacchante 
feels  not  her  wound  while  in  ecstasy  she  shrieks  to 
the  accompaniment  of  Idaean  measures,  so  when 
my  heart  feels  the  inspiring  glow  of  the  green 
thyrsus,3  that  mood  is  too  exalted  for  human  woe  ;  it 
realizes  neither  exile  nor  the  shores  of  the  Scythian 
sea  nor  the  anger  of  the  gods,  and  just  as  if  I  were 
drinking  slumber-bringing  Lethe's  draughts,  I  lose 
the  sense  of  evil  days. 

2  The  comrades  of  Ulysses  are  meant. 
8  The   ivy-crowned  staff  of  the  devotees  of  Bacchus — 
often  used  as  a  symbol  for  poetic  inspiration. 

M  161 


OVID 

iure  deas  igitur  veneror  mala  nostra  levantes, 
50      sollicitae  *  comites  ex  Helicone  fugae, 
et  partim  pelago  partim  vestigia  terra 

vel  rate  dignatas  vel  pede  nostra  sequi. 
sint,   precor,   haec   saltern   faciles   mihi !     namque 

deorum 

cetera  cum  magno  Caesare  turba  facit, 
65  meque  tot  adversis  cumulant,2  quot  litus  harenas, 

quotque  fretum  pisces,  ovaque  piscis  habet. 
vere  prius  flores,  aestu  mimerabis  aristas, 

poma  per  autumnum  frigoribusque  nives, 
quam  mala,  quae  toto  patior  iactatus  in  orbe, 
60      dum  miser  Euxini  litora  laeva  3  peto. 

nee  tamen,  lit  veni,  levior  fortuna  malorum  est : 

hue  quoque  sunt  nostras  fata  secuta  vias. 
hie  quoque  cognosco  natalis  stamina  nostri, 

stamina  de  nigro  vellere  facta  mihi. 
65  utque  neque  insidias  capitisque  pericula  narrem, 

vera  quidem,  veri 4  sed  graviora  fide, 
vivere  quam  miserum  est  inter  Bessosque  Getasque 

ilium,  qui  populi  semper  in  ore  fuit ! 
quam  miserum  est,  porta  vitam  muroque  tueri, 
70      vixque  sui  tutum  viribus  esse  loci  ! 
aspera  militiae  iuvenis  certamina  fugi, 

nee  nisi  lusura  movimus  arma  manu  ; 
nunc  senior  gladioque  latus  scutoque  sinistram, 

canitiem  galeae  subicioque  meam. 
75  nam  dedit  e  specula  custos  ubi  signa  tumultus, 
induimus  trepida  protinus  arma  manu. 

1  sollicitas  corr.  Scaliger 

*  cumulat  8  saeva :  laeva  r 

*  veri]  vera  vel  vidi  corr.  Francius 

1  i.e.  as  one  enters  the  Pontus.     But  Ovid  may  be  playing 
162 


TRISTIA,  IV.  i.  49-76 

49  Tis  right  then  for  me  to  revere  the  goddesses 
who  lighten  my  misfortunes,  who  came  from  Helicon 
to  share  my  anxious  flight,  who  now  by  sea,  now  by 
land,  deigned  to  follow  my  route  on  ship  or  afoot. 
May  they  at  least,  I  pray,  be  propitious  to  me  ! 
For  the  rest  of  the  gods  take  sides  with  mighty 
Caesar,  heaping  upon  me  as  many  ills  as  the  sands 
of  the  shore,  the  fishes  of  the  sea,  or  the  eggs  of  the 
fish.  Sooner  will  you  count  the  flowers  of  spring, 
the  grain-ears  of  summer,  the  fruits  of  autumn,  or  the 
snowflakes  in  time  of  cold  than  the  ills  which  I  suffered 
driven  all  over  the  world  seeking  in  wretchedness  the 
shores  to  the  left l  of  the  Euxine.  Yet  no  lighter 
since  my  coming  is  the  lot  of  my  misfortunes ;  to 
this  place  also  fate  has  followed  my  path.  Here  also 
I  recognize  the  threads  of  my  nativity,  threads 
twisted  for  me  from  a  black  fleece.  To  say  naught 
of  ambushes  or  of  dangers  to  my  life — true  they  are, 
yet  too  heavy  for  belief  in  truth — how  pitiable 
a  thing  is  living  among  Bessi  and  Getae  for  him  who 
was  ever  on  the  people's  lips  !  How  pitiable  to 
guard  life  by  gate  and  wall,  and  scarce  to  be  safe- 
guarded by  the  strength  of  one's  own  position  !  The 
rough  contests  of  military  service  I  shunned  even  as 
a  youth  and  touched  arms  only  with  a  hand  intending 
to  play  ;  but  now  that  I  am  growing  old  I  fit  a  sword 
to  my  side,  a  shield  to  my  left  arm,  and  I  place  a 
helmet  upon  my  gray  head.  For  when  the  guard 
from  the  lookout  has  given  the  signal  of  a  raid, 
forthwith  I  don  my  armour  with  shaking  hands. 

on  the  meaning  of  Euxine,  "  hospitable,"  "  propitious,"  i.e. 
the  "  hospitable  sea,  so  inhospitable,"  ef.  TV.  iii.  13.  28  ; 
v.  10. 14 ;  iv.  8.  42.  But  Tr.  iv.  10.  97  supports  the  transla- 
tion given  in  the  text. 

163 


OVID 

hostis,  habens  arcus  imbutaque  tela  venenis,1 

saevus  anhelanti  moenia  lustrat  equo  ; 
utque  rapax  pecudem,  quae  senon  texit  ovili, 
80      per  sata,  per  silvas  fertque  trahitque  lupus, 
sic,  siquem  nondum  portarum  saepe  2  receptum 

barbarus  in  campis  repperit  hostis,  habet : 
aut  sequitur  captus  coniectaque  vincula  collo 

accipit,  aut  telo  virus  habente  perit. 
85  hie  ego  sollicitae  lateo  novus  incola  sedis  : 

heu  nimium  fati  tempora  longa  3  mei  ! 
et  tamen  ad  numeros  antiquaque  sacra  revert! 

sustinet  in  tantis  hospita  Musa  malis. 
sed  neque  cui  recitem  quisquam  est  mea  carmina, 

nee  qui 
90      auribus  aecipiat  verba  Latina  suis. 

ipse  mihi — quid  enim  faciam  ? — scriboque  legoque, 

tutaque  iudicio  littera  nostra  suo  est. 
saepe  tamen  dixi  "  cui  nunc  haec  cura  laborat  ? 

an  mea  Sauromatae  scripta  Getaeque  legent  ?  " 
95  saepe  etiam  lacrimae  me  sunt  scribente  profusae, 

umidaque  est  fletu  littera  facta  meo, 
corque  vetusta  meum,  tamquam  nova,  vulnera  novit, 

inque  sinum  maestae  labitur  imber  aquae, 
cum  vice  mutata,  qui  sim  fuerimque,  recorder, 
100      et,  tulerit  quo  me  casus  et  unde,  subit, 
saepe  manus  demens,  studiis  irata  sibique, 

misit  in  arsuros  carmina  nostra  focos. 
atque  ita  4  de  multis  quoniam  non  multa  supersunt, 

cum  venia  facito,  quisquis  es,  ista  legas. 
105  tu   quoque  non  melius,  quam  sunt  mea  tempora, 

carmen, 
interdicta  mihi,  consule,  Roma,  boni. 

1  veneno  *  sede :  saepe  r 

*  lenta  *  ea :  ita  r 

164 


TRISTIA,  IV.  i.  77-106 

The  foe  with  his  bows  and  with  arrows  dipped  in 
poison  fiercely  circles  the  walls  upon  his  panting 
steed,  and  as  the  sheep  which  has  not  found  shelter 
in  the  fold  is  carried  and  dragged  through  field, 
through  forest  by  the  ravening  wolf,  so  'tis  with 
him  whom  the  barbarian  finds  not  yet  sheltered 
within  the  hedge  of  the  gates,  but  in  the  fields  : 
that  man  either  follows  into  captivity  and  submits 
to  the  bonds  cast  about  his  throat  or  he  dies  by  an 
envenomed  missile.  This  is  the  place  in  which,  a  new 
colonist  in  an  abode  of  anxiety,  I  lie  secluded — alas  ! 
too  long  is  the  period  of  my  fate  ! 

87  Nevertheless  my  Muse  has  the  heart  to  return 
to  rhythm,  to  her  old-time  rites,  a  friendly  guest  amid 
these  great  misfortunes.  But  there  is  none  to  whom 
I  may  read  my  verses,  none  whose  ears  can  com- 
prehend Latin  words.  I  write  for  myself — what  else 
can  I  do  ? — and  I  read  to  myself,  and  my  writing  is 
secure  in  its  own  criticism.  Yet  have  I  often  said, 
"  For  whom  this  careful  toil  ?  Will  the  Sauromatae 
and  the  Getae  read  my  writings  ?  "  Often  too  my 
tears  have  flowed  as  I  wrote,  my  writing  has  been 
moistened  by  my  weeping,  my  heart  feels  the  old 
wounds  as  if  they  were  fresh,  and  sorrow's  rain  glides 
down  upon  my  breast. 

99  Again  when  I  bethink  me  what,  through  change 
of  fortune,  I  am  and  what  I  was,  when  it  comes  over 
me  whither  fate  has  borne  me  and  whence,  often  my 
mad  hand,  in  anger  with  my  efforts  and  with  itself, 
has  hurled  my  verses  to  blaze  upon  the  hearth.  And 
since  of  the  many  not  many  survive,  see  thou  readest 
them  with  indulgence,  whoever  thou  mayst  be ! 
Thou  too  take  in  good  part  verse  that  is  not  better 
than  my  lot,  O  Rome  forbidden  to  me ! 

165 


OVID 


II. 

lam  fera  Caesaribus  Germania,  totus  ut  orbis, 

victa  potest  flexo  succubuisse  genu, 
altaque  velentur  fortasse  Palatia  sertis, 

turaque  in  igne  sonent  inficiantque  diem, 
6  candidaque  adducta  collum  percussa  securi 

victima  purpureo  sanguine  pulset  humum, 
donaque  amicorum  templis  promissa  deorum 

reddere  victores  Caesar  uterque  parent, 
et  qui  Caesar eo  iuvenes  sub  nomine  crescunt, 
10      perpetuo  terras  ut  domus  ilia  regat, 

cumque  bonis  nuribus  pro  sospite  Li  via  nato 

munera  det  meritis,  saepe  datura,  deis, 
et  pariter  matres  et  quae  sine  crimine  castos 

perpetua  servant  virginitate  focos  ; 
16  plebs  pia  cumque  pia  laetetur  plebe  senatus, 

parvaque  cuius  eram  pars  ego  nuper  eques : 
nos  procul  expulsos  communia  gaudia  fallunt, 

famaque  tarn  longe  non  nisi  parva  venit. 
ergo  omnis  populus  poterit  spectare  triumphos, 
20      cumque  ducum  titulis  oppida  capta  leget, 
vinclaque  captiva  reges  cervice  gerentes 

ante  coronatos  ire  videbit  equos, 
et  cernet  vultus  aliis  pro  tempore  versos, 

terribiles  aliis  inmemoresque  sui. 
25  quorum  pars  causas  et  res  et  nomina  quaeret, 

pars  referet,  quamvis  noverit  ilia  parum. 


1  Tiberius  was  in  the  field   against  the  Germans,  cf, 
iii.  12.  45.     Ovid  is  anticipating  the  triumph. 
8  Augustus  and  Tiberius. 
*  Germanicus  and  the  younger  Drusus. 

166 


TRISTIA,  IV.  n.  1-26 


II.  A  TRIUMPH  OVER  GERMANY 

Already  wild  Germany,  like  the  whole  world,  may 
have  yielded  on  bended  knee  to  the  Caesars  ; l  may- 
hap the  lofty  Palatium  is  decked  with  garlands  and 
incense  is  crackling  in  the  fire,  colouring  the  light 
of  day,  while  from  the  white  victim's  throat  smitten 
by  the  axe's  stroke  the  red  blood  is  pattering  upon 
the  ground,  the  gifts  promised  to  the  temples  of  the 
friendly  gods  are  being  made  ready  for  offering  by 
both  Caesars  2  and  by  the  youths  3  who  are  growing 
up  under  Caesar's  name  to  give  that  house  eternal 
sway  over  the  world ;  with  her  good  daughters 4 
Livia  for  the  safety  of  her  sou  is  perchance  offering 
gifts,  as  she  will  often  do,  to  the  deserving  gods,  and 
in  her  company  the  matrons  also  and  those  who 
without  stain  in  eternal  virginity  keep  watch  over 
the  hearth  of  purity ;  the  loyal  plebs  is  rejoicing, 
and  with  the  loyal  plebs  the  senate  and  the  knights 
among  whom  but  recently  I  had  a  humble  part :  but 
I  driven  so  far  away  miss  the  common  rejoicing 
and  nothing  but  a  slight  rumour  penetrates  so  far. 

19  So  then  all  the  people  will  be  able  to  view  the 
triumph,  reading  the  names  of  captured  towns  and 
the  titles  of  leaders,  beholding  the  kings  with 
chains  upon  their  captive  throats  marching  before 
the  garlanded  horses,  seeing  some  countenances 
turned  to  earth  as  becomes  captives,  others  grim  and 
forgetful  of  their  lot.  Some  of  the  people  will 
inquire  the  causes,  the  objects,  the  names,  and  others 
will  answer  though  they  know  all  too  little. 

*  Agrippina,  wife  of  Germanicus,  and  Li  villa,  wife  of 
Drusus. 

167 


OVID 

haec  ego  summotus  qua  possum  mente  videbo  : 

erepti  nobis  ius  habet  ilia  loci  : 
ilia  per  inmensas  spatiatur  libera  terras, 
60      in  caelum  celeri  pervenit  ilia  via  l  ; 
ilia  meos  oculos  mcdiam  deducit  in  urbem, 

immunes  tanti  nee  sinit  esse  boni  ; 
invenietque  animus,  qua  currus  spectet  eburnos  ; 

sic  certe  in  patria  per  breve  tempus  ero. 
65  vera  tamen  capiet  populus  spectacula  felix, 

laetaque  erit  praesens  cum  duce  turba  suo. 
at  mihi  fingendo  tantum  longeque  remotis 

auribus  hie  fructus  percipiendus  erit, 
atque  procul  Latio  diversum  missus  in  orbem 
70      qui  narret  cupido,  vix  erit,  ista  mihi. 

is  quoque  iam  serum  referet  veteremque  triumphum  : 

quo  tamen  audiero  tempore,  laetus  ero. 
ilia  dies  veniet,  mea  qua  lugubria  ponam, 

causaque  privata  publica  maior  erit. 

III. 

Magna  minorque  ferae,  quarum  regis  altera  Graias, 

altera  Sidonias,  utraque  sicca,  rates, 
omnia  cum  summo  positae  videatis  in  axe, 

et  maris  occiduas  non  subeatis  aquas, 
5  aetheriamque  suis  cingens  amplexibus  arcem 

vester  ab  intacta  circulus  extet  humo, 
aspicite  ilia,  precor,  quae  non  bene  moenia  quondam 

dicitur  Iliades  transiluisse  Remus, 
inque  mearn  nitidos  dominam  convertite  vultus, 
10      sitque  memor  nostri  necne,  referte  mihi. 


1  The  constellations  of  the  Greater  arid  Lesser  Bear. 
170 


TR1STIA,  IV.  n.  57—ni.  10 

67  All  this  I,  an  exile,  shall  see  in  my  mind's  eye — 
my  only  way  ;  for  my  mind  at  least  has  a  right  to  that 
place  which  has  been  torn  from  me.  It  travels  free 
through  measureless  lands,  it  reaches  the  heaven  in 
its  swift  course,  it  leads  my  eyes  to  the  city's  midst, 
not  allowing  them  to  be  deprived  of  so  great  a  bless- 
ing ;  and  my  mind  will  find  a  place  to  view  the  ivory 
car, — thus  at  least  for  a  brief  space  I  shall  be  in  my 
native  land.  Yet  the  real  sight  will  belong  to  the 
happy  people,  the  throng  will  rejoice  in  the  presence 
of  their  own  leader. 

67  But  as  for  me — in  imagination  only  and  with  ears 
far  away  I  shall  have  perforce  to  realize  the  joy,  and 
there  will  scarce  be  one  sent  far  from  Latium  to  the 
opposite  side  of  the  world  to  tell  it  all  to  eager  me. 
Even  he  will  tell  the  tale  of  that  triumph  late,  when 
it  is  already  of  long  standing  ;  yet  whenever  I  hear 
of  it,  I  shall  be  glad.  Then  will  come  a  day  on  which 
I  may  lay  aside  my  gloom  ;  greater  than  a  private 
cause  will  be  that  of  the  state. 


III.  To  HIS  WIFE 

Ye  two  beasts,1  great  and  small,  one  the  guide  of 
Grecian,  the  other  of  Sidonian  ships,  each  unwetted 
by  the  waves,  since  from  your  places  at  the  summit 
of  the  pole  ye  behold  all  things,  never  dipping 
beneath  the  westering  waters,  and  since  your  orbit 
girdling  heaven's  heights  in  its  embrace  stands  out 
above  the  earth  it  never  touches,  regard,  I  pray, 
those  walls  which  once,  they  say,  Remus,  Ilia's  son, 
leaped  across  to  his  undoing ;  turn  your  bright  faces 
upon  my  lady  and  tell  me  whether  she  thinks  of  me 

171 


OVID 

ei  mihi,  cur   timeam  ?    quae   sunt   manifesta,   re- 

quiro. 

cur  iacet l  ambiguo  spes  mea  mixta  metu  ? 
crede,  quod  est  et  vis,  ac  desine  tuta  vereri, 

deque  fide  certa  sit  tibi  certa  fides, 
15  quodque  polo  fixae  nequeunt  tibi  dicere  flammae, 

non  mentitura  tu  tibi  voce  refer, 
esse  tui  memorem,  de  qua  tibi  maxima  cura  est, 

quodque  potest,  secum  nomen  habere  tuum. 
vultibus  ilia  tuis  tamquam  praesentis  inhaeret,2 
20      teque  remota  procul,  si  modo  vivit,  amat. 
ecquid,  ubi  incubuit  iusto  mens  aegra  dolori, 

lenis  ab  admonito  pectore  somnus  abit  ? 
tune  subeunt  curae,  dum  te  lectusque  locusque 

tangit  et  oblitam  non  sinit  esse  mei, 
25  et  veniunt  aestus,  et  nox  inmensa  videtur, 

fessaque  iactati  corporis  ossa  dolent  ? 
non  equidem  dubito,  quin  haec  et  cetera  fiant, 

detque  tuus  maesti  signa  doloris  amor, 
nee  cruciere  minus,  quam  cum  Thebana  cruentum 
30      Hectora  Thessalico  vidit  ab  axe  rapi. 

quid  tamen  ipse  precer  dubito,  nee  dicere  possum, 

affectum  quern  te  mentis  habere  velim. 
tristis  es  ?  indignor  quod  sim  tibi  causa  doloris  : 

non  es  ?  at  3  amisso  coniuge  digna  fores. 
35  tu  vero  tua  damna  dole,  mitissima  coniunx, 

tempus  et  a  nostris  exige  triste  malis, 
fleque  meos  casus  :  est  quaedam  flere  voluptas  ; 

expletur  lacrimis  egeriturque  dolor, 
atque  utinam  lugenda  tibi  non  vita,  sed  esset 
40     mors  mea,  morte  fores  sola  relicta  mea  ! 

1  latet  vel  labat :  iacet  Ehwald 
2'praesentibus  haeret  8  ut :  at  "Rentley 

172 


TRISTIA,  IV.  in.  11-40 

or  not.  Ah  me  !  Why  should  I  fear  ?  I  am  seeking 
that  which  is  already  clear.  Why  does  my  hope  He 
prostrate  mingled  with  hesitating  fear  ?  Believe 
that  which  is  even  as  you  wish,  and  cease  to  fear  for 
what  is  secure.  When  faith  wavers  not,  have  in  it 
unwavering  faith,  and  what  the  pole-flames  cannot 
tell  you,  that  tell  yourself  in  a  voice  that  will  not  lie  : 
of  you  in  very  truth  she  thinks — she  who  is  the  object 
of  your  own  great  love  ;  she  keeps  with  her  the  only 
thing  she  can,  your  name.  She  bends  over  your  face 
as  if  you  were  present,  and  though  far  away,  if  only 
she  is  alive,  she  loves  you  still. 

21  When  thy  sick  heart  broods  upon  thy  just  grief, 
can  it  be  that  soft  slumber  leaves  thy  mindful  breast  ? 
Then  does  woe  steal  upon  thee,  while  my  couch  and 
my  place  touch  thee,  not  permitting  thee  to  forget 
rne  ?  Does  anguish  come  and  the  night  seem  end- 
less, and  do  the  weary  bones  of  thy  tossing  body 
ache  ?  I  doubt  not  that  these  and  other  things 
occur,  that  thy  love  gives  token  of  sorrow's  pain,  that 
thou  art  tortured  not  less  than  the  Theban  princess  l 
wKen  she  beheld  blood-stained  Hector  dragged  by 
the  Thessalian  chariot.2 

31  Yet  what  prayer  to  utter  I  know  not,  nor  can  I 
say  what  feeling  I  wish  thee  to  have.  Art  thou  sad  ? 
I  am  angry  that  I  am  the  cause  of  thy  grief.  Thou 
art  not  sad  ?  Yet,  I  would  have  thee  worthy  of  a 
lost  husband.  Bewail  in  very  truth  thy  loss,  gentlest 
of  wives,  live  through  a  time  of  sorrow  for  my  mis- 
fortunes. Weep  for  my  woe  ;  in  weeping  there  is  a 
certain  joy,  for  by  tears  grief  is  sated  and  relieved. 
And  would  that  thou  hadst  to  mourn  not  my  life  but 
my  death,  that  by  my  death  thou  hadst  been  left 

1  Andromache.  *  The  car  of  Achilles. 

173 


OVID 

spiritus  hie  per  te  patrias  exisset  in  auras, 
sparsissent  lacrimae  pectora  nostra  piae, 
supremoque  die  notum  spectantia  caelum 

texissent  digiti  lumina  nostra  tui, 
45  et  cinis  in  tumulo  positus  iacuisset  avito, 

tactaque  nascenti  corpus  haberet  humus  ; 
denique,  ut  et  vixi,  sine  crimine  mortuus  essem. 

nunc  mea  supplicio  vita  pudenda  suo  est. 
me  miserum,  si  tu,  cum  diceris  exulis  uxor, 
60      avertis  vultus  et  subit  ora  rubor  ! 

me  miserum,  si  turpe  putas  mihi  nupta  videri ! 

me  miserum,  si  te  iam  pudet  esse  meam  ! 
tempus  ubi  est  illud,  quo  te  iactare  solebas 

coniuge,  nee  nomen  dissimulare  viri  ? 
55  tempus  ubi  est,  quo  te  l — nisi  non  vis  ilia  referri — 

et  dici,  memini,  iuvit  et  esse  meam  ? 
utque  proba  dignum  est,  omni  tibi  dote  placebam  : 

addebat  veris  multa  faventis  amor, 
nee,  quern  praeferres — ita  res  tibi  magna  videbar — 
60      quemque  tuum  malles  esse,  vir  alter  erat. 

nunc    quoque    ne    pudeat,    quod    sis    mihi    nupta ; 

tuusque 

non  debet  dolor  hinc,  debet  abesse  pudor. 
cum  cecidit  Capaneus  subito  temerarius  ictu, 

num  legis  Euadnen  erubuisse  viro  ? 
65  nee  quia  rex  mundi  compescuit  ignibus  ignes, 

ipse  suis  Phaethon  infitiandus  erat. 
nee  Semele  Cadmo  facta  est  aliena  parenti, 

quod  precibus  periit  ambitiosa  suis. 
nee  tibi,  quod  saevis  ego  sum  lovis  ignibus  ictus, 
70      purpureus  molli  fiat  in  ore  pudor. 

1  illud  quo  te  vel  illud  nisi  non  vis  vel  illud  quo  ni  (non) 
fugis  corr.  r 
174 


TRISTIA,  IV.  in.  41-70 

alone  !  This  spirit  of  mine  through  thy  aid  would 
have  gone  forth  to  its  native  air,  loving  tears  would 
have  wet  my  breast,  my  eyes  upon  the  last  day  gazing 
at  a  familiar  sky  would  have  been  closed  by  thy 
fingers,  my  ashes  would  have  been  laid  to  rest  in  the 
tomb  of  my  fathers  and  the  ground  that  I  touched  at 
birth  would  possess  my  body  ;  as  I  lived,  in  fine,  so 
should  I  have  died, — without  crime.  Now  my  life 
must  be  shamed  by  its  own  punishment.  Wretched 
am  I  if,  when  thou  art  called  an  exile's  wife,  thou 
dost  avert-  thy  gaze  and  a  blush  steals  over  thy  face  ! 
Wretched  am  I  if  thou  countest  it  disgrace  to  be 
thought  my  bride  !  Wretched  am  I  if  now  thou  art 
ashamed  to  be  mine  !  Where  is  that  time  when  thou 
wert  wont  to  boast  of  thy  husband  and  not  conceal 
that  husband's  name  ?  Where  is  that  time  when — 
unless  thou  wouldst  not  have  such  things  recalled — 
thou  wert  glad  (I  remember)  to  be  called  and  to 
be  mine  ?  As  becomes  a  good  woman  thou  wert 
pleased  with  every  endowment  I  possessed  and  to 
those  which  were  real  thy  partial  love  added  many. 
There  was  no  other  man  for  thee  to  put  before  me — 
so  important  an  object  did  I  seem  to  thee — nor  any 
whom  thou  didst  prefer  to  be  thy  husband.  Even 
now  be  not  ashamed  that  thou  art  wedded  to  me  ; 
this  should  bring  thee  grief,  but  no  shame.  When 
fell  rash  Capaneus  by  a  sudden  stroke,  dost  thou  read 
that  Euadne  blushed  for  her  husband  ?  Not  because 
the  king  of  the  world  quelled  fire  with  fire  was 
Phaethon  to  be  denied  by  his  friends.  Semele  was 
not  estranged  from  her  father,  Cadmus,  because  she 
perished  through  her  ambitious  prayers.  Nor  upon 
thy  tender  face,  because  I  have  been  smitten  by 
Jove's  flame,  let  red  shame  be  spread.  But  rather 

175 


OVID 

sed  magis  in  curam  nostri  consurge  tuendi, 

exemplumque  mihi  coniugis  esto  bonae, 
materiamque  tuis  tristem  virtutibus  imple  : 

ardua  per  pracceps  gloria  vadit  iter. 
75  Hectora  quis  nosset,  si  felix  Troia  fuisset  ? 

publica  virtutis  per  mala  facta  via  est. 
ars  tua,  Tiphy,  iacet,  si  non  sit  in  aequore  fluctus  : 

si  valeant  homines,  ars  tua,  Phoebe,  iacet. 
quae  latet  inque  bonis  cessat  non  cognita  rebus, 
80      apparet  virtus  arguiturque  malis. 

dat  tibi  nostra  locum  tituli  fortuna,  caputque 

conspicuum  pictas  qua  tua  tollat,  habet. 
utere  temporibus,  quorum  nunc  munerc  facta  est l 

et  patet  in  laudes  area  lata  tuas. 

IV. 

O  qui,  nominibus  cum  sis  generosus  avorum, 

exsuperas  morum  nobilitate  genus, 
cuius  inest  animo  patrii  candoris  imago, 

non  careat  nervis  2  candor  ut  istc  suis, 
5  cuius  in  ingenio  est  patriae  facundia  linguae, 

qua  prior  in  Latio  non  fuit  ulla  foro — 
quod  minime  volui,  positis  pro  nomine  signis 

dictus  es  :   ignoscas  laudibus  ipse  tuis. 
nil  ego  peccavi  ;   tua  te  bona  cognita  produnt 
10      si,  quod  es,  appares,  culpa  soluta  rnea  est. 
nee  tamen  officium  nostro  tibi  carmine  factum 

principe  tarn  iusto  posse  nocere  puto. 
ipse  pater  patriae — quid  enim  est  civilius  illo  ?- 

sustinet  in  nostro  carmine  saepe  legi, 

1  ficta  est  vel  freta  es  :   facta  est  Ehwald 
2  numeris  *r 

1  Perhaps  Messalinus,  cf.  Ex  P.  l.  7,  ii.  2. 

176 


TRISTIA,  IV.  in.  71— iv.  14 

rise  to  the  charge  of  my  defence  and  be  thou  for  me 
the  model  of  a  noble  wife.  Flood  a  sad  theme  with 
thy  virtues  :  glory  scales  the  heights  by  steepest 
paths.  Who  would  know  Hector,  if  Troy  had  been 
happy  ?  By  public  ills  was  the  way  of  virtue  builded. 
Thy  skill,  Tiphys,  lies  inert  if  there  be  no  wave  upon 
the  sea  :  if  men  be  in  health,  thy  skill,  Phoebus,  lies 
inert. 

79  The  virtue  which  lies  hidden  and  hangs  back  un- 
recognized in  times  of  prosperity,  comes  to  the  fore 
and  asserts  itself  in  adversity.  My  fate  gives  thee 
scope  for  fame  and  provides  a  chance  for  thy  loyal 
love  to  raise  a  conspicuous  head.  Avail  thyself  of 
the  crisis  through  whose  gift  a  mighty  field  has  been 
created,  open  for  thy  praise. 

IV.  To  A  NOBLE  FRIEND  l 

O  you  who  through  ancestral  names  have  noble 
birth  yet  surpass  your  birth  in  nobility  of  character, 
whose  mind  reflects  your  father's  candour  yet  so 
that  it  lacks  not  powers  all  its  own,  in  whose  intellect 
resides  the  eloquence  of  your  father's  tongue  which 
no  other  in  the  Latin  forum  has  excelled — I  have 
addressed  you  not  at  all  as  I  wished,  with  symbols 
instead  of  a  name  ;  do  you  pardon  these  praises 
that  are  all  your  own.  I  have  been  to  blame  in 
naught,  for  your  virtues  are  recognized  and  betray 
you.  If  you  appear  to  be  what  you  really  are  I  am 
acquitted  of  fault. 

11  And  yet  the  homage  rendered  to  you  by  my  verse 

cannot,  I  think,  harm  you  with  so  just  a  prince  ;  even 

the  Father  of  his  Country — for  who  is  milder  than 

he  ? — submits  to  frequent  mention  in  my  verse,  nor 

N  177 


OVID 

15  nee  prohibere  potest,  quia  res  est  publica  Caesar, 

et  de  communi  pars  quoque  nostra  bono  est. 
luppiter  ingeniis  praebet  sua  numina  vatum, 

seque  celebrari  quolibet  ore  sinit. 
causa  tua  exemplo  superorum  tuta  duonim  est, 
20     quorum  hie  aspicitur,  creditur  ille  deus. 

ut  non  debuerim,  tamen  hoc  ego  crimen  habebo  : 

noti  fuit  arbitrii  littera  nostra  tui. 
nee  nova,  quod  tecum  loquor,  est  iniuria  nostra, 

ineolumis  cum  quo  saepe  locutus  eram. 
25  quo  vereare  minus  ne  sim  tibi  crimen  amicus, 

invidiam,  siqua  est,  auctor  habere  potest. 
nam  tuns  est  primis  cultus  mihi  semper  ab  annis — 

hoc  certe  noli  dissimulare — pater, 
ingeniumque  meurn  (potes  hoc  meminisse)  probabat 
30     plus  etiam  quam  me  iudice  dignus  eram  ; 
deque  meis  illo  referebat  versibus  ore, 
in  quo  pars  magnae  nobilitatis  erat. 
non  igitur  tibi  nunc,  quod  me  domus  ista  recepit, 

sed  prius  auctori  sunt  data  verba  tuo.1 
36  nee  2  data  sunt,  mihi  crede,  tamen  :  sed  in  omnibus 

actis 

ultima  si  demas,  vita  tuenda  mea  est. 
hanc  quoque,  qua  perii,  culpam  scelus  esse  negabis, 

si  tanti  series  sit  tibi  nota  mali. 
aut  timor  aut  error  nobis,  prius  obfuit  error. 
40     a ! 3  sine  me  fati  non  meminisse  mei ; 
neve  retractando  nondum  coeuntia  rumpam  4 

vulnera  :  vix  illis  proderit  ipsa  quies. 
ergo  ut  iure  damus  poenas,  sic  afuit  omne 
peccato  facinus  consiliumque  meo  ; 

1  sed  sunt  auctori  non  tua  verba  tuo 
*  non :  nee  r 8  at 4  rumpe  vel  rupem 

""  1  Jupiter  and  Augustus.  "" 

178 


TRISTIA,  IV.  TV.  15-y 

can  he  prevent  it,  for  Caesar  is  the  state,  and  of 
the  common  good  I  too  have  a  share.  Jupiter  offers 
his  divinity  to  poets'  art,  permitting  himself  to  he 
praised  by  every  mouth.  Your  case  is  safeguarded 
by  the  example  of  two  superhuman  beings  1  of  whom 
one  in  men's  sight,  the  other  in  their  belief,  is  a  god. 
Even  though  I  have  transgressed  duty,  yet  I  shall  he 
the  one  accused,  for  my  letter  was  not  under  your 
control.  And  'tis  no  new  wrong  that  I  commit  in 
speaking  with  you,  for  in  the  time  of  my  security  I 
often  spoke  with  you.  You  need  not  fear  that  my 
friendship  will  be  laid  as  a  charge  against  you  ;  the 
odium,  if  there  be  any,  can  be  assigned  to  him  who 
was  responsible.  For  from  my  earliest  years  I 
honoured  your  father  2 — this  at  least  desire  not  to 
conceal — and  my  talent,  you  may  remember,  was 
approved  by  him  even  more  than  in  my  own  judg- 
ment I  deserved  ;  of  my  verse  he  used  to  speak  with 
those  lips  in  which  lay  part  of  his  great  renown. 
Not  you  then,  if  your  house  made  me  welcome,  but 
your  father  before  you  was  cheated  Yet  cheating 
there  was  none,  believe  me,  but  in  all  its  acts,  if 
you  except  the  very  latest,  my  life  is  worthy  of 
protection.  Even  this  fault  which  has  ruined  me 
you  will  say  is  no  crime,  if  you  should  come  to  know 
the  course  of  this  great  evil.  Either  timidity  or  a 
mistake — mistake  first — has  injured  me.  Ah,  let  me 
not  remember  my  fate  !  Let  me  not  handle  and 
break  open  wounds  that  are  not  yet  closed  !  Scarce 
will  rest  itself  relieve  them. 

43  So  then  I  am  justly  paying  a  penalty,  but  no  act 
or  design  was  connected  with  my  sin.    And  this  the 

2  M.  Valerius  Messallar— if  the  noble  addressed  is  Messa- 
linus. 

179 


OVID 

45  idque  deus  sentit ;  pro  quo  nee  lumen  ademptum, 

nee  mihi  detractas  possidet  alter  opes, 
forsitan  hanc  ipsam,  vivam  modo,  finiet  olim, 

tempore  cum  fuerit  lenior  ira,  fugam. 
nunc  precor  hinc  alio  iubeat  discedere,  si  non 
60      nostra  verecundo  vota  pudore  carent. 
mitius  exilium  pauloque  propinquius  opto, 

quique  sit  a  saevo  longius  hoste  locus  ; 
quantaque  in  Augusto  dementia,  si  quis  ab  illo 

hoc  peteret  pro  me,  forsitan  ille  daret. 
65  frigida  me  cohibent  Euxini  litora  Ponti  : 

dictus  ab  antiquis  Axenus  ille  fuit. 
nam  neque  iactantur  moderatis  aequora  ventis, 

nee  placidos  portus  hospita  navis  adit, 
sunt  circa  gentes.  quae  praedam  sanguine  quaerunt ; 
60      nee  minus  infida  terra  timetur  aqua. 
illi,  quos  audis  hominum  gaudere  cruore, 

paene  sub  eiusdem  sideris  axe  iacent, 
nee  procul  a  nobis  locus  est,  ubi  Taurica  dira 

caede  pharetratae  spargitur  ara  deae. 
65  haec  prius,  ut  memorant,  non  invidiosa  nefandis 

nee  cupienda  bonis  regna  Thoantis  erant. 
hie  pro  supposita  virgo  Pelopei'a  cerva 

sacra  deae  coluit  qualiacumque  suae. 
quo  postquam,  dubium  pius  an  sceleratus,  Orestes 
70      exactus  Furiis  venerat  ipse  suis, 

et  comes  exemplum  veri  Phoceus  amoris, 

qui  duo  corporibus  mentibus  unus  erant, 
protinus  evincti l  tristem  ducuntur  ad  aram, 

quae  stabat  geminas  ante  cruenta  fores. 

1  evict! 


1  Euxinus,    "  hospitable,"    Axenos,    "  inhospitable,"   cf. 
Tr.  in.  13  (end). 

180 


TRISTIA,  IV.  iv.  45-74 

God  realizes,  and  so  life  was  not  taken  from  me  nor 
my  wealth  stripped  away  to  become  the  property  of 
another.  Perchance  this  very  exile,  if  only  I  live, 
he  will  sometime  bring  to  an  end  when  time  shall 
soften  his  wrath.  Now  I  am  begging  him  to  order 
me  to  another  place,  if  my  prayer  lacks  not  respect 
and  modesty.  A  milder  place  of  exile,  a  little  nearer 
home,  I  pray — a  place  farther  from  the  fierce  enemy  ; 
and  such  is  Augustus's  mercy  that  if  one  should  ask 
this  of  him  in  my  behalf,  it  may  be  he  would  grant  it. 
65  The  cold  shores  of  the  Pontus  Euxinus  keep  me  ; 
by  men  of  old  it  was  called  Axenus.1  For  its  waters 
are  tossed  by  no  moderate  winds  and  there  are  no 
quiet  harbours  visited  by  foreign  ships.  Round  about 
are  tribes  eager  for  plunder  and  bloodshed,  and  the 
land  is  not  less  to  be  feared  than  the  treacherous 
sea.  They  whom  you  hear  as  rejoicing  in  men's  gore 
dwell  almost  beneath  the  axis  of  the  same  constella- 
tion as  myself,  and  not  far  away  from  me  is  the  place 
where  the  Tauric  altar  of  the  quivered  goddess 2 
is  sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  murder.  This  in 
former  times,  they  say,  was  the  realm  of  Thoas,  not 
envied  by  the  wicked  nor  desired  by  the  good.  Here 
the  Pelopian  maid,3  she  for  whom  the  doe  was 
substituted,  cared  for  the  offerings  (whatever  their 
nature  ! 4)  to  her  goddess.  Hither  came  Orestes, 
whether  in  loyalty  or  crime,  I  know  not,  driven  by 
his  own  furies,  and  his  Phocean  comrade,5  the  model 
of  sincere  love  ;  these  twain  were  a  single  heart  in 
two  bodies.  Forthwith  in  bonds  they  were  brought 
to  the  harsh  altar  that  stood  reeking  with  blood  before 

8  The  Taurian  Diana.  8  Iphigenia. 

*  Human  sacrifices.  &  Pylades. 

181 


OVID 

75  nee  tamen  hunc  sua  mors,  nee  mors  sua  terruit  ilium 

alter  ob  alterius  funera  maestus  erat. 
et  iam  constiterat  stricto  mucrone  sacerdos, 

cinxerat  et  Graias  barbara  vitta  comas, 
cum  vice  sermonis  fratrem  cognovit,  et  illi 
80      pro  nece  complexus  Iphigenia  dedit. 
laeta  deae  signum  crudelia  sacra  perosae 

transtulit  ex  illis  in  meliora  locis. 
haec  igitur  regio,  magni  paene  ultima  mundi, 

quam  fugere  homines  dique,  propinqua  mihi  est : 
85  aque 1  mea  terra  2  prope  sunt  funebria  sacra, 

si  modo  Nasoni  barbara  terra  sua  est. 
o  utinam  venti,  quibus  est  ablatus  Orestes, 
placato  referant  et  mea  vela  deo  ! 

V. 

O  mihi  dilectos  inter  pars  prima  sodales, 

unica  fortunis  ara  reperta  meis 
cuius  ab  adloquiis  anima  haec  moribunda  revixit, 

ut  vigil  infusa  Pallade  flamma  solet ; 
5  qui  veritus  non  es  portus  aperire  fideles 

fulmine  percussae  confugiumque  rati ; 
cuius  eram  censu  non  me  sensurus  egentem, 

si  Caesar  patrias  eripuisset  opes, 
temporis  oblitum  dum  me  rapit  impetus  huius, 
10      excidit  heu  nomen  quam  mihi  paene  tuum  ! 
tu  tamen  agnoscis  tactusque  cupidine  laudis, 

1  ille  ego  sum  '  cuperes  dicere  posse  palam. 
certe  ego,  si  sineres,  titulum  tibi  reddere  vellem, 

et  raram  famae  conciliare  fidem. 

1  atque  a  mcam  terram 

1  Augustus.  *  i.e.  when  oil  is  poured  upon  it. 

182 


TRISTIA,  IV.  iv.  75— v.  14 

the  double  doors.  Yet  neither  the  one  nor  the  other 
feared  his  own  death  :  each  sorrowed  for  the  other's 
fate.  Already  had  the  priestess  taken  her  stand 
with  drawn  knife,  her  Grecian  tresses  bound  with  a 
barbarian  fillet,  when  in  their  talk  she  recognized 
her  brother  and  in  the  stead  of  death  Iphigenia  gave 
him  her  embrace.  In  joy  she  bore  away  the  statue 
of  the  goddess,  who  detested  cruel  rites,  from  that 
place  to  a  better. 

83  Such  then  is  the  region,  almost  the  farthest  in  the 
vast  world,  fled  by  men  and  gods,  that  is  near  me. 
Near  to  my  land — if  a  barbarian  land  is  Naso's  own 
— are  the  rites  of  death.  O  may  the  winds  which 
bore  Orestes  away,  waft  my  sails  also  homeward, 
under  the  favour  of  a  god 1  appeased  ! 

V.  To  A  LOYAL  FRIEND 

O  thou  who  art  foremost  among  my  beloved 
comrades,  who  didst  prove  to  be  the  sole  altar  for 
my  fortunes,  whose  words  of  comfort  revived  this 
dying  soul,  as  the  flame  is  wont  to  wake  at  the  touch 
of  Pallas,2  thou  who  didst  not  fear  to  open  a  secure 
harbour  of  refuge  for  a  bark  smitten  by  the  thunder- 
bolt ;  through  whose  means  I  should  not  have  felt 
myself  in  want  had  Caesar  taken  from  me  my 
inherited  wealth — while  my  fervour  hurries  me  on  in 
forgetfulness  of  my  present  state,  how  nearly,  ah 
me  !  have  I  let  slip  thy  name  ?  Yet  dost  thou 
recognize  it,  and  touched  by  desire  for  praise  thou 
wouldst  wish  thou  couldst  say  openly,  *'  I  am  the 
man/'  Surely  if  thou  wouldst  permit,  I  would 
render  honour  to  thee  and  unite  rare  fidelity  to  fame. 

183 


OVID 

15  ne  noceam  grato  vereor  tibi  carmine,  neve 

intempestivus  nominis  obstet  honor, 
quod  licet  (et l  tutum  est)  intra  tua  pectora  gaude 

meque  tui  memorem  teque  fuisse  pium, 
utque  facis,  remis  ad  opem  luctare  ferendam, 
20      dum  veniat  placido  mollior  aura  deo  ; 
et  tutare  caput  nulli  servabile,  si  non 

qui  mersit  Stygia  sublevet  illud  aqua  ; 
teque,  quod  est  rarum,  praesta  constanter  ad  omne 

indeclinatae  munus  amicitiae. 
25  sic  tua  processus  habeat  fortuna  perennes, 

sic  ope  non  egeas  ipse  iuvesque  tuos  ; 
sic  aequet  tua  nupta  virum  bonitate  perenni, 

incidat  et  vestro  nulla  2  querella  toro  ; 
diligat  et  semper  socius  de  sanguinis  illo, 
30       quo  pius  affectu  Castora  frater  amat  ; 
sic  iuvenis  similisque  tibi  sit  natus,  et  ilium 

moribus  agnoscat  quilibet  esse  tuum  ; 
sic  faciat  socerum  taeda  te  nata  iugali, 

nee  tardum  iuveni  det  tibi  nomen  avi. 


VI. 

Tempore  ruricolae  patiens  fit  taurus  aratri, 

praebet  et  incurvo  colla  premenda  iugo  ; 
tempore  paret  equus  lentis  animosus  habenis, 

et  placido  duros  accipit  ore  lupos  ; 
6  tempore  Poenorum  compescitur  ira  leonum, 

nee  feritas  animo,  quae  fuit  ante,  manet ; 
quaeque  sui  monitis  3  obtemperat  Inda  magistri 

belua,  servitium  tempore  victa  subit. 

1  hoc  2  nulla]  rara  8  iussis 

184. 


TRIST1A,  IV.  v.  15— vi.  8 

But  I  fear  that  my  grateful  verse  may  do  thee  hurt, 
that  the  unseasonable  honour  of  renown  may  stand 
in  thy  light.  This  thou  mayst  do,  and  'tis  safe  : 
rejoice  within  thine  own  breast  that  I  have  remem- 
bered thee,  and  that  thou  hast  been  loyal,  and  as 
thou  art  doing,  strain  thine  oars  to  bear  me  aid  until 
the  god  is  appeased  and  a  gentler  breeze  shall  come  ; 
save  a  life  that  none  can  save  unless  he  who  sub- 
merged it  lifts  it  from  the  Stygian  waters,  and  give 
thyself — a  rare  thing  it  is — to  every  service  of  un- 
swerving friendship.  So  may  thy  fortune  make 
constant  progress,  so  mayst  thou  need  no  aid  and 
mayst  thou  aid  thine  own  !  So  may  thy  bride  equal 
her  husband  in  constant  goodness  and  no  complaint 
befall  your  union.  Mayst  thou  have  also  the  love 
of  him  who  shares  thy  blood,  such  love  as  his  loyal 
brother l  feels  for  Castor.  So  may  thy  youthful 
son  be  like  thee  and  may  his  character  cause  all  to 
know  him  as  thine  own.  So  may  the  marriage  torch 
of  thy  daughter  make  thee  a  father-in-law  and  soon 
give  thee,  still  in  thy  prime,  the  name  of  grandsire ! 


VI.  TIME  BRINGS  NO  ANODYNE 

By  time  the  peasant's  bullock  is  made  submissive 
to  the  plough,  offering  his  neck  to  the  pressure  of  the 
curving  yoke  ;  time  renders  the  mettlesome  horse 
obedient  to  the  pliant  bridle  as  he  receives  with 
gentle  mouth  the  hard  bit ;  time  quiets  the  rage  of 
Phoenician  lions  so  that  their  former  wildness  abides 
not  in  their  spirits  ;  the  Indian  brute,2  obedient  to 
the  commands  of  her  master,  vanquished  by  time, 
1  Pollux.  «  The  elephant. 

185 


OVID 

tempus  ut  extensis  tumeat  facit  uva  racemis, 
10      vixque  merum  capiant  grana  quod  intus  habent ; 
tempus  et  in  canas  semen  producit  aristas, 

et  ne  sint  tristi  poma  sapor e  cavet.1 
hoc  tenuat  dentem  terram  renovantis  2  aratri, 

hoc  rigidas  silices,  hoc  adamanta  terit ; 
15  hoc  etiam  saevas  paulatim  mitigat  iras, 

hoc  minuit  luctus  maestaque  corda  levat. 
cuncta  potest  igitur  tacito  pede  lapsa  vetustas 

praeterquam  curas  attenuare  meas. 
ut  patria  careo,  bis  frugibus  area  trita  est, 
20      dissiluit  nudo  pressa  bis  uva  pede. 

nee  quaesita  tamen  spatio  patientia  longo  est, 

mensque  mali  sensum  nostra  recentis  habet. 
scilicet  et  veteres  fugiunt  iuga  saepe  iuvenci, 

et  domitus  freno  saepe  repugnat  equus. 
25  tristior  est  etiam  praesens  aerumna  priore  : 

ut  sit  enim  sibi  par,  crevit  et  aucta  mora  est. 
nee  tarn  nota  mihi,  quam  sunt,  mala  nostra  fuerunt ; 

nunc  3  magis  hoc,  quo  sunt  cognitiora,  gravant. 
est  quoque  non  nihilum  4  vires  afferre  recentes, 
30      nee  praeconsumptum  temporis  esse  malis. 
fortior  in  fulva  novus  est  luctator  harena, 

quam  cui  sunt  tarda  brachia  fessa  mora. 
integer  est  melior  nitidis  gladiator  in  armis, 

quam  cui  tela  suo  sanguine  tincta  rubent. 
35  fert  bene  praecipites  navis  modo  facta  procellas  : 

quamlibet  exiguo  solvitur  imbre  vetus. 
nos  quoque  quae  ferimus,  tulimus  patientius  ante 

quam  5  mala  sunt  longa  multiplicata  die  ! 

1  facit 

2  semoventis  ve I  scindentis  vel  patientis  :  renovantis  S~ 
a  nunc]  sed  *  minimum  6  quae :  quam  Ehwald 

186 


TRISTIA,  IV.  vi.  9-38 

submits  to  servitude.  Time  causes  the  grape  to 
swell  on  the  spreading  clusters  until  the  berries 
scarce  hold  the  juice  within  ;  time  develops  the  seed 
into  white  ears  of  grain  and  takes  heed  that  fruits 
be  not  sour.  Time  thins  the  ploughshare  as  it  renews 
the  soil,  it  wears  away  hard  flint  and  adamant  ;  it 
gradually  softens  even  fierce  anger,  it  lessens  grief 
and  relieves  sorrowing  hearts.  All  things  then  can 
be  weakened  by  the  passing  of  silent-footed  time 
save  my  woes.  Since  I  have  been  bereft  of  my 
native  land,  twice  has  the  threshing-floor  been 
smoothed  for  the  grain,  twice  has  the  grape  burst 
apart  beneath  the  pressure  of  naked  feet.  And  yet 
the  long  time  has  not  given  me  fortitude  ;  my  mind 
has  the  sense  of  a  woe  still  fresh. 

23  Assuredly  even  aged  bullocks  often  shun  the  yoke, 
and  the  well-broken  horse  often  fights  the  bit.  My 
present  woe  is  harsher  even  than  of  old,  for  though 
still  like  itself,  it  has  grown  and  increased  with  time. 
Nor  were  my  evils  so  well  known  to  me  as  now  they 
are  ;  now  that  I  know  them  better,  they  weigh  the 
more  heavily.  It  is  something  also  to  apply  to  them 
strength  still  fresh  and  not  to  have  been  worn  out 
beforehand  by  the  ills  of  time.  Stronger  is  the  fresh 
wrestler  on  the  yellow  sands  than  one  whose  arms  are 
wearied  by  slow  waiting.  Unwounded  in  shining 
armour  the  gladiator  is  better  than  the  one  whose 
weapons  are  stained  red  with  his  own  blood.  The 
new-built  ship  bears  well  the  headlong  blast,  even  a 
little  squall  breaks  up  the  old  one.  I  too  of  old  bore 
more  submissively  what  I  am  now  bearing.  How 
have  my  woes  been  multiplied  by  the  lapse  of  time  ! 

187 


OVID 

crcdite,  deficio,  nostroque  a  corpore  quantum 
40      auguror,  accedunt  tempora  parva  mails. 

nam  neque  sunt  vires,  nee  qui  color  esse  solebat : 

vix  habeo  tenuem,  quae  tegat  ossa,  cutem. 
corpore  sed  mens  est  aegro  magis  aegra,  malique 

in  circumspectu  stat  sine  fine  sui. 
45  urbis  abest  facies,  absunt,  mea  cura,  sodales, 

et,  qua  nulla  mihi  carior,  uxor  abest. 
vulgus  adest  Scythicum  bracataque  turba  Getarum  ; 

sic  me 1  quae  video  non  videoque  movcnt.2 
una  tamen  spes  est  quae  me  soletur  in  istis, 
60      haec  fore  morte  mea  non  diuturna  mala. 


VII. 

Bis  me  sol  adiit  gelidae  post  frigora  brumae, 

bisque  suum  tacto  Pisce  peregit  iter. 
tempore  tarn  longo  cur  non  tua  dextera  versus 

quamlibet  in  paucos  officiosa  fuit  ? 
6  cur  tua  cessavit  pietas,  scribentibus  illis, 

exiguus  nobis  cum  quibus  usus  erat  ? 
cur,  quotiens3  alicui  chartae  sua  vincula  dempsi, 

illam  speravi  nomen  habere  tuum  ? 
di  faciant  ut  saepe  tua  sit  epistula  dextra 
10      scripta,  sed  e  multis  reddita  nulla  mihi. 

quod  precor,  esse  liquet.    credam  prius  ora  Medusae 

Gorgonis  anguineis  4  cincta  fuisse  comis, 
esse  canes  utero  sub  virginis,  esse  Chimaeram, 

a  truce  quae  flammis  separet  angue  learn, 

1  me]  mala  a  nocent 

3  totiens  4  anguinis  5" 

188 


TRISTIA,  IV.  vi.  39— vn.  14 

I  assure  you  I  am  failing,  and  so  far  as  I  can  prophesy 
from  my  bodily  strength,  but  little  time  remains  for 
my  sorrows.  For  I  have  neither  the  strength  nor 
the  colour  I  used  to  have  ;  my  thin  skin  scarce 
covers  my  bones.  My  body  is  sick  but  my  mind  is 
worse,  engrossed  in  gazing  endlessly  upon  its  suffer- 
ing. Far  from  me  is  the  sight  of  the  city,  far  from 
me  my  beloved  friends,  far  from  me  she  who  is  dearer 
than  all,  my  wife.  Before  me  is  a  crowd  of  Scythians, 
a  trousered  throng  of  Getae.  Thus  what  I  behold 
and  what  I  do  not  behold  affect  me.  Yet  there  is 
one  hope  that  consoles  me  in  all  this  :  my  death  will 
prevent  these  ills  from  enduring  long. 


VII.  A  REPROACH 

Twice  has  the  sun  drawn  near  me  after  the  cold 
of  icy  winter,  twice  completed  his  journey  by  touch- 
ing the  Fish.1  In  so  long  a  time  why  has  not  thy 
hand  done  its  duty  and  completed  even  a  few  lines  ? 
Why  has  thy  loyalty  failed  while  they  are  writing 
with  whom  I  had  but  slight  companionship  ?  Why, 
whenever  I  have  removed  its  bonds  from  some  letter, 
have  I  hoped  that  it  contained  thy  name  ?  May  the 
gods  grant  that  thou  hast  often  written  a  letter  but 
that  not  one  of  the  many  has  been  delivered  to  me. 
My  prayer  is  true,  'tis  clear.  I'll  sooner  believe  that 
the  gorgon  Medusa's  face  was  garlanded  with  snaky 
locks,  that  there  is  a  maiden  with  dogs  below  her 
middle,2  that  there  is  a  Chimaera,  formed  of  a  lioness 
and  a  fierce  serpent  held  apart  by  flame,  that  there 

1  The  sun  enters  the  constellation  of  the  Fish  in  February. 
2  Scylla. 

189 


OVID 

15  quadrupedesque  hominis1cumpectore  pectora  iunctos, 

tergeminumque  virum  tergeminumque  canem, 
Sphingaque  et  Harpyias  serpentipedesque  Gigantes, 

centimanumque  Gyan  semibovemque  virum. 
haec  ego  cuncta  prius,  quam  te,  carissime,  credam 
20      mutatum  curam  deposuisse  mei. 

innumeri  montes  inter  me  teque  viaeque 

fluminaque  et  campi  nee  freta  pauca  iacent. 
mille  potest  causis  a  te  quae  littera  saepe 
missa  sit  in  nostras  rara  venire  manus  ; 
25  mille  tamen  causas  scribendo  vinee  frequenter, 
excusem  ne  te  semper,  amice,  mihi. 


VIII. 

lam  mea  cycneas  imitantur  tempora  plumas, 

inficit  et  nigras  alba  senccta  comas, 
iam  subeunt  anni  fragiles  et  inertior  aetas, 

iamque  parum  firmo  me  mihi  ferre  grave  est. 
6  nunc  erat,  ut  posito  deberem  fine  laborum 

vivere,  me  nullo  2  sollicitante  metu, 
quaeque  meae  semper  placuerunt  otia  menti 

carpere  et  in  studiis  molliter  esse  meis, 
et  parvam  celebrare  domum  veteresque  Penates 
10      et  quae  nunc  domino  rura  paterna  carent, 
inque  sinu  dominae  carisque  sodalibus  inque 

securus  patria  consenuisse  mea. 
haec  mea  sic  quondam  peragi  speraverat  aetas  : 

hos  ego  sic  annos  ponere  dignus  eram. 
15  non  ita  dis  visum  est,  qui  me  terraque  marique 

actum8  Sarmaticis  exposuere  locis. 

1  homines  vel  hominum 
8  cum  nullo  a  iactum 

190 


TRISTIA,  IV.  vn.   15— vin.  16 

are  fourfooted  creatures  whose  breasts  are  joined  to 
those  of  a  man,1  a  triple  man  2  and  a  triple  dog,3 
a  Sphinx  and  Harpies  and  snaky -footed  giants,  a 
hundred-handed  Gyas  and  a  man  who  is  half  a  bull.4 
All  these  things  will  I  believe  rather  than  that  thou, 
dear  one,  hast  changed  and  put  aside  thy  love  for  me. 
Countless  mountains  lie  between  thee  and  me,  and 
roads,  and  rivers,  and  plains,  and  not  a  few  seas.  A 
thousand  reasons  can  exist  why  the  letters  often  sent 
by  thee  rarely  reach  my  hands.  But  overcome  the 
thousand  reasons  by  writing  often,  lest  I  be  forever 
making  my  own  excuses  for  thee,  my  friend. 


VIII.  AN  EXILE'S  DECLINING  YEARS 

Already  my  temples  are  like  the  plumage  of  a 
swan,  for  white  old  age  is  bleaching  my  dark  hair. 
Already  the  years  of  frailty  and  life's  inactive  time 
are  stealing  upon  me,  and  already  'tis  hard  for  me  in 
my  weakness  to  bear  up.  Now  'twere  time  that  I 
should  of  right  cease  my  toils  and  live  with  no 
harassing  fears,  to  enjoy  the  leisure  that  always 
pleased  my  taste,  comfortably  engaged  in  my  pur- 
suits, devoting  myself  to  my  humble  house  and  its 
old  Penates,  the  paternal  fields  that  are  now  bereft 
of  their  master,  peacefully  growing  old  in  my  lady's 
embrace,  among  my  dear  comrades  and  in  my  native 
land.  For  such  consummation  as  this  did  my  youth 
once  hope  ;  thus  to  pass  these  years  did  I  deserve. 

15  Not  so  have  the  gods  decreed  ;  they  have  driven 
me  over  land  and  sea  and  cast  me  forth  in  the  region 


1  Centaurs.  8  Geryon. 

•  Cerberus.  *  The  Minotaur. 


191 


OVID 

in  cava  ducuntur  quassae  navalia  puppes, 

ne  temere  in  mediis  dissoluantur  aquis. 
ne  cadat  et  multas  palmas  inhonestet  adeptus,1 
20      languidus  in  pratis  gramina  carpit  equus. 
miles  ubi  emeritis  non  est  satis  utilis  annis, 

ponit  ad  antiques,  quae  tulit,  arrna  Lares, 
sic  igitur,  tarda  vires  minuente  senecta, 

me  quoque  donari  iam  rude  tempus  erat. 
25  tempus  erat  nee  me  peregrinum  dueere  caelum, 

nee  siccam  Getico  fonte  levare  sitim, 
sed  modo,  quos  habui,  vacuos  secedere  in  hortos, 

nunc  hominum  visu  rursus  et  urbe  frui. 
sic  animo  quondam  non  divinante  futura 
30      optabam  placide  vivere  posse  senex. 

fata  repugnarunt,  quae,  cum  mihi  tempora  prima 

mollia  praebuerint,  posteriora  gravant. 
iamque  decern  lustris  omni  sine  labe  peractis, 

parte  premor  vitae  deteriore  meae  ; 
35  nee  procul  a  metis,  quas  paene  tenere  videbar, 

curriculo  gravis  est  facia  ruina  meo. 
ergo  ilium  demens  in  me  saevire  coegi, 

mitius  inmcnsus  quo  nihil  orbis  habet  ? 
ipsaque  delictis  victa  est  dementia  nostris, 
40      nee  tamen  errori  vita  negata  meo  est  ? 
vita  procul  patria  peragenda  sub  axe  Boreo, 

qua  maris  Euxini  terra  sinistra  iacet. 
hoc  mihi  si  Delphi  2  Dodonaque  diceret  ipsa, 

esse  videretur  vanus  uterque  locus. 


1  adeniptus.  vd  adeptas 
2  delphis  vd  dclphos  corr.  Scaliger 


1  Gladiators  who  had  finished  their  service  were  presented 
with  a  wooden  sword. 

192 


"TRISTIA,  IV.  vni.  17-44 

of  Sarmatia.  Battered  ships  are  drawn  into  the 
hollow  docks  lest  to  no  purpose  they  go  to  pieces 
in  the  waters'  midst.  Lest  the  steed  that  has  won 
many  palms  should  fall,  dishonouring  his  victories, 
lazily  now  he  crops  the  meadow  grass.  When  the 
soldier  after  years  of  service  is  no  longer  useful,  he 
lays  the  arms  he  has  borne  before  the  good  old 
Lares.  In  this  way,  since  slow  old  age  is  lessening 
my  strength,  'twere  time  for  me  also  to  be  presented 
with  the  wooden  sword.1  Twere  time  for  me  to 
breathe  no  foreign  air  nor  slake  my  parching  thirst 
with  Getic  water,  but  now  to  withdraw  into  the 
retirement  of  the  gardens  I  once  had,  now  once  again 
to  enjoy  the  sight  of  men  and  of  the  city. 

29  Thus  with  a  mind  unprophetic  of  the  future  did  I 
once  pray  for  power  to  live  quietly  when  old.  The 
Fates  opposed,  for  they  brought  comfort  to  my  early 
years,  to  the  later  ones  distress.  Now  after  I  have 
lived  ten  lustra  unblemished,2  at  a  harder  time  of 
life  I  am  o'erwhelmed  ;  not  far  from  the  goal,  which 
I  seemed  almost  to  have  within  my  reach,  my  car 
has  suffered  a  heavy  fall.  Did  I  then  in  my  madness 
force  him  into  rage  against  me  who  is  more  gracious 
than  anything  the  wide  world  possesses  ?  Has  his 
very  mercy  been  overcome  by  my  sins,  and  yet  has 
my  error  not  denied  me  life  ?  This  life  I  must  pass 
far  from  my  country,  beneath  the  pole  of  Boreas  in 
the  land  to  the  left  of  the  Euxine  sea.3  If  this  had 
been  told  me  by  Delphi  or  Dodona  herself,4  both 
places  would  have  seemed  to  me  unworthy  of  belief. 

2  Ovid  was  about  fifty  when  he  was  banished,  c.  A.D.  8. 

3  See  note  on  Tr.  iv.  1.  60. 

4  Delphi,  the   oracle  of  Apollo  ;    Dodona,  the  oracle  of 
Zeus. 

O  193 


OVID 

45  nil  adeo  validum  est,  adamas  licet  alliget  illud, 

ut  maneat  rapido  firmius  igne  lovis  ; 
nil  ita  sublime  est  supraque  pericula  tendit 

non  sit  ut  inferius  suppositumque  deo. 
nam  quamquam  vitio  pars  est  contracta  malorum, 
50      plus  tamen  exitii  numinis  ira  dedit. 

at  vos  admoniti  nostris  quoque  casibus  este, 
aequantem  superos  emeruisse  virum. 


IX. 

Si  licet  et  pateris,  nomen  facinusque  tacebo, 

et  tua  Lethaeis  acta  dabuntur  aquis, 
nostraque  vincetur  lacrimis  dementia ]  seris, 

fac  modo  te  pateat  paenituisse  tui  ; 
5  fac  modo  te  damnes  cupiasque  eradere  vitae 

tempora,  si  possis,  Tisiphonea  tuae, 
sin  minus,  et  flagrant  odio  tua  pectora  nostro, 

induet  infelix  arma  coacta  dolor, 
sim  licet  extremum,  sicut  sum,  missus  in  orbem, 
10      nostra  suas  istinc 2  porriget  ira  manus. 
omnia,  si  nescis,  Caesar  mihi  iura  reliquit, 

et  sola  est  patria  poena  carere  mea. 
et  patriam,  modo  sit  sospes,  speramus  ab  illo  : 

saepe  lovis  telo  quercus  adusta  viret. 
15  denique  vindictae  si  sit  mihi  nulla  facultas, 

Pierides  vires  et  sua  tela  dabunt. 
quod  Scythicis  habitem  longe  summotiis  in  oris, 

siccaque  sint  oculis  proxima  signa  meis, 

1  dementia  2  istic  vd  isto  (istuc  r) :  istinc 

1  Augustus. 
194- 


TRISTIA,  IV.  vin.  45— ix.  18 

45  Nothing  is  so  strong,  though  it  be  bound  with 
adamant,  as  to  withstand  by  greater  might  the  swift 
thunderbolt  of  Jupiter  ;  nothing  is  so  lofty  or  reaches 
so  far  above  perils  that  it  is  not  beneath  a  god  and 
subject  to  him.  For  although  by  fault  I  drew  upon 
me  a  part  of  my  ills,  yet  more  ruin  has  befallen  me 
because  of  the  wrath  of  a  divine  power.  But  be  ye 
warned  by  my  fate  also  that  ye  make  yourselves 
worthy  of  the  man  l  who  is  like  unto  the  gods  1 


IX.  A  THREAT 

If  I  may  and  you  allow  it,  I  will  keep  silent  your 
name  and  deed,  consigning  your  acts  to  Lethe's 
waters,  and  my  mercy  shall  be  won  by  tears  that  are 
late  in  coming,  if  only  you  make  it  clear  that  you  have 
repented,  if  only  through  self-condemnation  you 
show  yourself  eager  to  erase  from  your  life,  if  but 
you  can,  that  period  of  Tisiphone.  But  if  not,  if 
your  heart  still  burns  with  hate  for  me,  unhappy  rage 
shall  don  perforce  its  arms.  Though  I  be  banished, 
as  I  have  been,  to  the  edge  of  the  world,  from  thence 
shall  my  wrath  stretch  forth  its  hands.  All  my 
rights,  if  you  know  it  not,  Caesar  has  left  me,  and 
my  only  punishment  is  to  be  parted  from  my  country. 
Even  my  country,  if  only  he  lives  on,  I  hope  as  a  boon 
from  him  ;  often  the  oak  scorched  by  the  bolt  of  Jove 
becomes  green  once  more.  In  fine  if  I  should  have 
no  opportunity  for  vengeance,  the  daughters  of 
Pieria  will  give  me  strength  and  their  own  weapons. 
What  though  I  dwell  so  far  removed  on  the  Scythian 
shores  with  the  constellations  that  are  ever  dry  close 

195 


OVID 

nostra  per  inmensas  ibunt  praeconia  gentes, 
20      quodque  querar  notum  qua  patet  orbis  erit. 
ibit  ad  occasum  quicquid  dicemus  ab  ortu, 

testis  et  Hesperiae  vocis  Eous  erit. 
trans  ego  tellurem,  trans  altas  audiar  imdas, 

et  gemitus  vox  est  magna  futura  mei, 
25  nee  tua  te  sontem  tantummodo  saecula  norint : 

perpetuae  crimen  poster! tatis  eris. 
iam  feror  in  pugnas  et  nondum  cornua  sumpsi, 

nee  mibi  sumendi  causa  sit  ulla  velim. 
Circus  adhuc  eessat  ;  spargit  iam  torvus 5  harenam 
30      taurus  et  infesto  iam  pede  pulsat  humum. 

hocquoque,quamvolui, plus  est.  cane,Musa,receptus, 
dum  licet  huic  nomen  dissimulare  suum. 


X. 

Ille  ego  qui  fuerim,  tenerorum  lusor  amorum, 

quem  legis,  ut  noris,  accipe  posteritas. 
Sulmo  mihi  patria  est,  gelidis  uberrimus  undis, 

milia  qui  novies  distat  ab  urbe  decem. 
6  editus  hie  ego  sum,  nee  non,  ut  tempora  noris, 

cum  cecidit  fato  consul  uterque  pari  : 
si  quid  id  est,  usque  a  proavis 2  vetus  ordinis  heres 

non  modo  fortunae  munere  factus  eques. 
nee  stirps  prima  fui  ;  genito  sum  fratre  creatus, 
10      qui  tribus  ante  quater  mensibus  ortus  erat. 
Lucifer  amborum  natalibus  aflfuit  idem  : 

una  celebrata  est  per  duo  liba  dies  ; 

1  tamen  acer 
2  si  quid  (quis)  et  a  proavis  usque  est 

196 


TRISTIA,  IV.  ix.  19— x.  12 

to  my  eyes,  my  herald-call  shall  pass  through  limitless 
peoples,  my  complaint  shall  be  known  wherever  the 
world  extends.  Whatever  I  say  shall  pass  to  the 
setting  sun  from  its  rising  and  the  East  shall  bear 
witness  to  the  voice  of  the  West.  Across  the  land, 
across  deep  waters  I  shall  be  heard,  and  mighty 
shall  be  the  cry  of  my  lament.  Not  alone  your  own 
age  shall  know  you  guilty  ;  to  everlasting  posterity 
you  shall  be  a  criminal.  Already  I  am  rushing  into 
battle  though  I  have  not  yet  taken  up  arms,  and  I 
would  I  had  no  cause  to  take  them  up.  The  arena 
is  still  quiet,  but  the  grim  bull  is  already  tossing  the 
sand,  already  pawing  the  ground  with  angry  hoof. 
Even  this  is  more  than  I  wished  :  Muse,  sound  the 
retreat,  while  this  man  still  has  the  power  to  con- 
ceal his  name. 


X.  THE  POET'S  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  l 

That  thou  mayst  know  who  I  was,  I  that  playful 
poet  of  tender  love  whom  thou  readest,  hear  my 
words,  thou  of  the  after  time.  Sulmo  is  my  native 
place,  a  land  rich  in  ice-cold  streams,  thrice  thirty 
miles  from  the  city.  There  first  I  saw  the  light,  and 
if  thou  wouldst  know  the  date,  'twas  when  both 
consuls  fell  under  stress  of  like  fate.  I  was  heir  to 
rank  (if  rank  is  aught)  that  came  from  forefathers  of 
olden  time — no  knight  fresh  made  by  fortune's  gift. 
I  was  not  the  first  born,  for  my  birth  befell  after  that 
of  a  brother,  thrice  four  months  my  senior.  The 
same  day-star  beheld  the  birth  of  us  both  :  one 
birthday  was  celebrated  by  the  offering  of  our  two 
1  See  Introd.  pp.  vii  if. 

197 


OVID 

haec  est  armiferae l  festis  de  quinque  Minervae, 

quae  fieri  pugna  prima  cruenta  solet. 
15  protinus  excolimur  teneri  curaque  parentis 

imus  ad  insignes  urbis  ab  arte  viros. 
f rater  ad  eloquium  viridi  tendebat  ab  aevo, 

fortia  verbosi  natus  ad  arma  fori ; 
at  mihi  iam  puero  caelestia  sacra  placebant, 
20      inque  suum  furtim  Musa  trahebat  opus. 

saepe  pater  dixit  "  studium  quid  inutile  temptas  ? 

Maeonides  nullas  ipse  reliquit  opes." 
mot  us  eram  dictis,  to  toque  Helicone  relicto 

scribere  temptabam  2  verba  soluta  modis. 
25  sponte  sua  carmen  numeros  veniebat  ad  aptos, 

et  quod  temptabam  scribere  3  versus  erat. 
interea  tacito  passu  labentibus  annis 

liberior  fratri  sumpta  mihique  toga  est, 
induiturque  umeris  4  cum  lato  purpura  clavo, 
30      et  studium  nobis,  quod  fuit  ante,  manet. 
iamque  decem  vitae  frater  geminaverat  annos, 

cum  perit,  et  coepi  parte  carere  mei. 
cepimus  et  tenerae  primos  aetatis  honores, 

eque5  viris  quondam  pars  tribus  una  fui. 
35  curia  restabat  :  clavi  mensura  coacta  est ; 

maius  erat  nostris  viribus  illud  onus, 
nee  patiens  corpus,  nee  mens  fuit  apta  labori, 

sollicitaeque  fugax  ambitionis  eram, 

1  armigerae  2  conabar  8  dicere 

4  humeros  6  hecque  vel  deque 

1  Offered  to  the  genius,  cf.  Tr.  iii.  13.  2. 

2  The  festival  of  Quinquatrua  (March  19-23),  on  the  last 
four  days  of  which  combats  occurred.     The  pott  was  then 
born  on  March  20,  43  B.C.,  when  both  consuls,  Hirtius  and 
Pansa,  fell  in  the  battles  near  Mutina,  rf.  v.  6. 

198 


TRISTIA,  IV.  x.  13-38 

cakes  l — that  day  among  the  five  sacred  to  armed 
Minerva  which  is  wont  to  be  the  first  stained  by  the 
blood  of  combat.2  While  still  of  tender  age  we  began 
our  training,  and  through  our  father's  care  we  came 
to  attend  upon  men  of  the  city  distinguished  in  the 
liberal  arts.  My  brother's  bent  even  in  the  green  of 
years  was  oratory :  he  was  born  for  the  stout  weapons 
of  the  wordy  forum.  But  to  me  even  as  a  boy  service 
of  the  divine  gave  delight  and  stealthily  the  Muse  was 
ever  drawing  me  aside  to  do  her  work.  Often  my 
father  said,  "  Why  do  you  try  a  profitless  pursuit  ? 
Even  the  Maeonian  left  no  wealth."  I  was  influenced 
by  what  he  said  and  wholly  forsaking  Helicon  I  tried 
to  write  words  freed  from  rhythm,  yet  all  unbidden 
song  would  come  upon  befitting  numbers  and  what- 
ever 1  tried  to  write  was  verse. 

27  Meanwhile  as  the  silent-pacing  years  slipped  past 
we  brothers  assumed  the  toga  of  a  freer  life  and  our 
shoulders  put  on  the  broad  stripe  of  purple  while 
still  our  pursuits  remained  as  before.  And  now  my 
brother  had  seen  but  twice  ten  years  of  life  when  he 
passed  away,  and  thenceforth  I  was  bereft  of  half 
myself.  I  advanced  so  far  as  to  receive  the  first 
office  granted  to  tender  youth,  for  in  those  days  I 
was  one  third  of  the  board  of  three.3  The  senate 
house  awaited  me,  but  I  narrowed  my  purple 
stripe  4  :  that  was  a  burden  too  great  for  my  powers. 
I  had  neither  a  body  to  endure  the  toil  nor  a  mind 
suited  to  it ;  by  nature  I  shunned  the  worries  of  an 

3  The  tresviri,  minor  officials.     See  Introd.  p.  viiL 

4  i.e.  he  chose  to  remain  a  simple  knight  and  refrained  from 
the  pursuit  of  offices. 

199 


OVID 

et  petere  Aoniae  suadebant  tuta  sorores 
40      otia,  iudicio  semper  amata  nieo. 
temporis  illius  colui  fovique  poetas, 

quotque  aderant  vates,  rebar  adesse  deos. 
saepe  suas  volucres  legit  mihi  grandior  aevo, 

quaeque  nocet x  serpens,  quae  iuvat 2  herba,  Macer. 
45  saepe  suos  solitus  recitare  Propertius  ignes, 

iure  sodalicii,  quo  3  mihi  iunctus  erat. 
Ponticus  heroo,  Bassus  quoque  clarus  iambis 

dulcia  convictus  membra  fuere  mei. 
et  tenuit  nostras  numerosus  Horatius  aures, 
60      dum  ferit  Ausonia  carmina  culta  lyra. 
Vergilium  vidi  tantum  :  nee  avara  Tibullo 

tempus  amicitiae  fata  dedere  meae. 
successor  fuit  hie  tibi,  Galle,  Propertius  illi  ; 

quartus  ab  his  serie  temporis  ipse  fui. 
55  utque  ego  maiores,  sic  me  colucre  minores, 
notaque  non  tarde  facta  Thalia  mea  est. 
carmina  cum  primum  populo  iuvenalia  legi, 

barba  resecta  mihi  bisve  semelve  fuit. 
moverat  ingenium  totam  cantata  per  urbem 
60      nomine  non  vero  dicta  Corinna  mihi. 

multa  quidem  scripsi,  sed,  quae  vitiosa  putavi, 

emendaturis  ignibus  ipse  dedi. 
tune    quoque,    cum    fugerem,    quaedam    placitura 

eremavi, 

iratus  studio  carminibusque  meis. 
65  molle  Cupidineis  nee  inexpugnabile  telis 

cor  mihi,  quodque  levis  causa  moveret,  erat. 

1  nocens  vel  necet  2  iuvet  3  qni 

1  The  Muses. 

2  Or  perhaps  "  melodious,"  but  cf.  Ex  P.  iv.  2.  33,  and  the 
numeri  innumpri  of  Plautus's  epitaph. 

8  Vergil  and  Tibullus  died  19  B.C. 
200 


TRISTIA,  IV.  x.  39-66 

ambitious  life  and  the  Aonian  sisters l  were  ever 
urging  me  to  seek  the  security  of  a  retirement  I  had 
ever  chosen  and  loved. 

41  The  poets  of  that  time  I  fondly  reverenced  :  all 
bards  I  thought  so  many  present  gods.  Ofttimes 
Macer,  already  advanced  in  years,  read  to  me  of  the 
birds  he  loved,  of  noxious  snakes  and  healing  plants. 
Ofttimes  Propertius  would  declaim  his  flaming  verse 
by  right  of  the  comradeship  that  joined  him  to  me. 
Ponticus  famed  in  epic,  Bassus  also,  famed  in  iambics, 
were  pleasant  members  of  that  friendly  circle.  And 
Horace  of  the  many  rhythms  2  held  in  thrall  our 
ears  while  he  attuned  his  fine-wrought  songs  to  the 
Ausonian  lyre.  Vergil  I  only  saw,  and  to  Tibullus 
greedy  fate  gave  no  time  for  friendship  with  me.3 
Tibullus  was  thy  successor,  Gallus,  and  Propertius 
his  ;  after  them  came  I,  fourth  in  order  of  time. 
And  as  I  reverenced  older  poets  so  was  I  reverenced 
by  the  younger,  for  my  Thalia  was  not  slow  to 
become  renowned.  When  first  I  read  my  youthful 
songs  in  public,  my  beard  had  been  cut  but  once  or 
twice.  My  genius  had  been  stirred  by  her  who  was 
sung  throughout  the  city,  whom  I  called,  not  by  a 
real  name,  Corinna.4  Much  did  I  write,  but  what  I 
thought  defective  I  gave  in  person  to  the  flames  for 
their  revision.  Even  when  I  was  setting  forth  into  exile 
I  burned  certain  verse  5  that  would  have  found  favour, 
for  I  was  angry  with  my  calling  and  with  my  songs. 

65  My  heart  was  ever  soft,  no  stronghold  against 
Cupid's  darts  —  a  heart  moved  by  the  slightest 

4  The  heroine  of  Ovid's  Amores.  She  was  probably 
chiefly  a  creature  of  his  imagination. 

6  Including  perhaps  the  Metamorphoses,  r/.  TV.  i.  7.  13, 
but  other  copies  of  that  work  existed. 

201 


OVID 

cum  tamen  hie  essem  minimoque  accenderer  igni, 

nomine  sub  nostro  fabula  nulla  fuit. 
paene  mihi  puero  nee  digna  nee  u tills  uxor 
70      est  data,  quae  tempus  per  breve  nupta  fuit. 
illi  successit,  quamvis  sine  crimine  coniunx, 

non  tamen  in  nostro  firma  futura  toro. 
ultima,  quae  mecum  seros  permansit  in  annos, 

sustinuit  eoniunx  exulis  esse  viri. 
75  filia  me  mea  bis  prima  fecunda  iuventa, 

sed  non  ex  uno  coniuge,  fecit  avum. 
et  iam  complerat  genitor  sua  fata  novemque 

addiderat  lustris  altera  lustra  novem. 
non  aliter  flevi,  quam  me  fleturus  ademptum 
80      ille  fuit.     matri1  proxima  busta  tuli. 
felices  ambo  tempestiveque  sepulti, 

ante  diem  poenae  quod  periere  meae  ! 
me  quoque  felicem,  quod  non  viventibus  illis 

sum  miser,  et  de  me  quod  doluere  nihil ! 
85  si  tamen  extinctis  aliquid  nisi  nomina  restat,2 

et  graeilis  structos  effugit  umbra  rogos, 
fama,  parentales,  si  vos  mea  contigit,  umbrae, 

et  sunt  in  Stygio  crimina  nostra  foro, 
scite,  precor,  causam  (nee  vos  mihi  fallere  fas  est) 
90      errorem  iussae,  non  scelus,  esse  fugae. 

Manibus  hoc  satis  est :  ad  vos,  studiosa,  revertor, 

pectora,  quae  vitae  quaeritis  acta  meae. 
iam  mihi  canities  pulsis  melioribus  annis 

venerat,  antiquas  miscueratque  comas, 

1  matrix  vel  matri  r  2  restant 


1  A  lustrum  =  five  years. 

*  The  court  of  the  lower  world  in  which  Minos,  Aeacus, 
and  Khadamarithus  were  the  judges. 
202 


TRISTIA,  IV.  x.  67-94 

impulse.  And  yet,  though  such  my  nature,  though  1 
was  set  aflame  by  the  littlest  spark,  no  scandal  became 
affixed  to  my  name.  When  I  was  scarce  more  than 
a  boy  a  wife  unworthy  and  unprofitable  became  mine 
— mine  for  but  a  short  space.  Into  her  place  came 
one,  blameless,  but  not  destined  to  remain  my  bride. 
And  last  is  she  who  remained  with  me  till  the  twilight 
of  my  declining  years,  who  has  endured  to  be  the 
mate  of  an  exile  husband.  My  daughter,  twice 
fertile,  but  not  of  one  husband,  in  her  early  youth 
made  me  grandsire.  And  already  had  my  father 
completed  his  allotted  span  adding  to  nine  lustra  l 
a  second  nine.  For  him  I  wept  no  otherwise  than 
he  would  have  wept  for  me  had  I  been  taken.  Next 
for  my  mother  I  made  the  offerings  to  death.  Happy 
both  !  and  laid  to  rest  in  good  season  !  since  they 
passed  away  before  the  day  of  my  punishment. 
Happy  too  am  I  that  my  misery  falls  not  in  their 
lifetime  and  that  for  me  they  felt  no  grief.  Yet  if 
for  those  whose  light  is  quenched  something  besides 
a  name  abides,  if  a  slender  shade  escapes  the  high- 
heaped  pyre,  if,  O  spirits  of  my  parents,  report  of 
me  has  reached  you  and  the  charges  against  me  live 
in  the  Stygian  court,2  know,  I  beg  you — and  you 
'tis  impious  for  me  to  deceive — that  the  cause  of  the 
exile  decreed  me  is  an  error,  and  no  crime.  Be  these 
my  words  to  the  shades.  To  you,  fond  hearts,  that 
would  know  the  events  of  my  life,  once  more  I  turn. 
03  Already  had  white  hairs  come  upon  me  driving 
away  my  better  years  and  mottling  my  ageing  locks ;  ten 

203 


OVID 

95  postque  meos  ortus  Pisaea  vinctus  oliva 

abstulerat  deciens  praemia  victor  eques, 
cum  maris  Kuxini  positos  ad  laeva  Tomitas 

quaerere  me  laesi  principis  ira  iubet. 
causa  meae  cunctis  nimium  quoque  nota  ruinae 
100      indicio  non  est  testificanda  rneo. 

quid  referam  comitumque  nefas  famulosque  nocentes? 

ipsa1  multa  tuli  non  leviora  fuga. 
indignata  malis  mens  est  succumbere  seque 

praestitit  invictam  viribus  usa  suis  ; 
105  oblitusque  mei  ductaeque  per  otia  vitae 

insolita  cepi  temporis  arma  manu  ; 
totque  tuli  terra  casus  pelagoque  quot  inter 

oceultum  stellae  conspicuumque  polum. 
tacta  mihi  tandem  longis  erroribus  acto 
110      iuncta  pharetratis  Sarmatis  ora  Getis. 

hie  ego,  finitimis  quamvis  circumsoner  armis, 

tristia,  quo  possum,  carmine  fata  levo. 
quod  quamvis  nemo  est,  euius  referatur  ad  aures, 

sic  tamen  absumo  decipioque  diem. 
115  ergo  quod  vivo  durisque  laboribus  obsto, 

nee  me  sollicitae  taedia  lucis  habent, 
gratia,  Musa,  tibi  :  nam  tu  solacia  praebes, 

tu  curac  requies,  tu  medieina  venis. 
tu  dux  et  comes  es,  tu  nos  abducis  ab  Histro, 
120      in  medioque  mihi  das  Helicone  locum  ; 
tu  mihi,  quod  rarum  est,  vivo  sublime  dedisti 

nomen,  ab  exequiis  quod  dare  fama  solet. 
nee,  qui  detractat  praesentia,  Livor  iniquo 

ullum  de  nostris  dente  momordit  opus. 

1  ipseque 
204 


TRISTIA,  IV.  x.  95-124 

times  since  my  birth  had  the  victorious  rider,  gar- 
landed with  Pisan  olive,  borne  away  the  prize,1  when 
the  wrath  of  an  injured  prince  ordered  me  to  Tomis  on 
the  left  of  the  Euxine  sea.  The  cause  of  my  ruin,  but 
too  well  known  to  all,  must  not  be  revealed  by  evi- 
dence of  mine.  Why  tell  of  the  disloyalty  of  com- 
rades, of  the  petted  slaves  who  injured  me  ?  Much 
did  I  bear  not  lighter  than  exile  itself.  I  Yet  my  soul, 
disdaining  to  give  way  to  misfortune,  proved  itself 
unconquerable,  relying  on  its  own  powers.  For- 
getting myself  and  a  life  passed  in  ease  I  seized  with 
unaccustomed  hand  the  arms  that  the  time  supplied  : 
on  sea  and  land  I  bore  misfortunes  as  many  as  are 
the  stars  that  lie  between  the  hidden  and  the  visible 
pole.  Driven  through  long  wanderings  at  length 
I  reached  the  shore  that  unites  the  Sarmatians 
with  the  quiver-bearing  Getae.  Here,  though  close 
around  me  I  hear  the  din  of  arms,  I  lighten  my  sad 
fate  with  what  song  I  may  ;  though  there  be  none 
to  hear  it,  yet  in  this  wise  do  I  employ  and  beguile 
the  day.  So  then  this  living  of  mine,  this  stand 
against  the  hardness  of  my  sufferings,  this  bare  will 
to  view  the  daylight's  woes,  I  owe,  my  Muse,  to 
thee  !  For  thou  dost  lend  me  comfort,  thou  dost 
come  as  rest,  as  balm,  to  my  sorrow.  Thou  art 
both  guide  and  comrade  :  thou  leadest  me  fur  from 
Hister  and  grantest  me  a  place  in  Helicon's  midst  ; 
thou  hast  given  me  while  yet  alive  (how  rare  the 
boon  !)  a  lofty  name — the  name  which  renown  is 
wont  to  give  only  after  death.  Nor  has  jealousy, 
that  detractor  of  the  present,  attacked  with  malignant 

1  Ten  Olympiads,  here  periods  of  five  years  each,  c/.  v.  78 
and  EJC  P.  iv.  6.  5.  The  Olympic  games  were  held  in  the 
district  of  Pisa  in  Elis. 

205 


OVID 

125  nam  tulerint  magnos  cum  saecula  nostra  poetas, 

non  fuit  ingenio  fama  maligna  meo, 
cumque  ego  praeponam  multos  mihi,  non  minor  illis 

dicor  et  in  toto  plurimus  orbe  legor. 
si  quid  habent  igitur  vatum  praesagia  veri, 
130      protinus  ut  moriar,  non  ero,  terra,  tuus, 
sive  favore  tuli,  sive  hanc  ego  carmine  famam, 
iure  tibi  grates,  candide  lector,  ago. 


206 


TRISTIA,  IV.  x.  125-132 

tooth  any  work  of  mine.  For  although  this  age 
of  ours  has  brought  forth  mighty  poets,  fame  has  not 
been  grudging  to  my  genius,  and  though  I  place 
many  before  myself,  report  calls  me  not  their  inferior 
and  throughout  the  world  I  am  most  read  of  all.  If 
then  there  be  truth  in  poets'  prophecies,  even  though 
I  die  forthwith,  I  shall  not,  O  earth,  be  thine.  But 
whether  through  favour  or  by  very  poetry  I  have 
gained  this  fame,  'tis  right,  kind  reader,  that  I 
render  thanks  to  thee. 


207 


LIBER  QUINTUS 
I. 

Hunc  quoque  de  Gctico,  nostri  studiose,  libellum 

litore  praemissis  quattuor  adde  meis. 
hie  quoque  tails  erit,  qualis  fortuna  poetae  : 

invenies  toto  carmine  dulce  nihil. 
6  flebilis  ut  noster  status  est,  ita  flebile  carmen, 

materiae  scripto  conveniente  suae. 
integer  et  laetus  l  laeta  et  iuvenalia  hisi  : 

ilia  tamen  nunc  me  composuisse  piget. 
ut  cecidi,  subiti  perago  praecoiiia  casus, 
10      sumque  argument!  conditor  ipse  mei. 
utque  iacens  ripa  deflere  Caystrius  ales 

dicitur  ore  suam  deficiente  necem, 
sic  ego,  Sarmaticas  longe  proiectus  in  oras, 

efficio  taciturn  ne  mihi  funus  eat. 
15  delicias  siquis  lascivaque  carmina  quaerit, 

praemoneo,  non  est 2  scripta  quod  i^ta  legat. 
aptior  huic  Callus  blandique  Propertius  oris, 

aptior,  ingenium  come,  Tibullus  erit. 
atque  utinam  numero  non  nos  3  essemus  in  isto  ! 
20      ei  mihi,  cur  umquam  Musa  iocata4  mea  est  ? 


1  donee  eram  laetus 

2  nostra  vel  numquam  :  non  est  Oronovius 

3  ne  nos  *  loruta  :  iocata  S~ 


208 


BOOK   V 

I.  A  PROEM  AND  AN  APOLOGY 

Add  this  book  also  to  the  four  I  have  already  sent, 
my  devoted  friend,  from  the  Getic  shore.  This  too 
will  be  like  the  poet's  fortunes  :  in  the  whole  course 
of  the  song  you  will  find  no  gladness.  Mournful 
is  my  state,  mournful  therefore  is  my  song,  for  the 
work  is  suited  to  its  theme.  Unhurt  and  happy 
with  themes  of  happiness  and  youth  I  played  (yet 
now  I  regret  that  I  composed  that  verse) ;  since  I 
have  fallen  I  act  as  herald  of  my  sudden  fall,  and  I 
myself  provide  the  theme  of  which  I  write.  As  the 
bird  of  Cayster  l  is  said  to  lie  upon  the  bank  and 
bemoan  its  own  death  with  weakening  note,  so  I, 
cast  far  away  upon  the  Sarmatian  shores,  take  heed 
that  my  funeral  rites  pass  not  off  in  silence. 

15  If  any  seeks  the  amusement  of  wanton  verse,  I 
forewarn  him,  there  is  no  warrant  for  reading  such 
verse  as  this.  Gallus  will  be  better  suited  for  such 
a  one,  or  Propertius  of  the  alluring  lips,  better  that 
winning  genius  Tibullus.  And  would  I  were  not 
counted  among  them  !  Alas  !  why  did  my  Muse 

1  The  swans  of  the  Lydian  Cayster  were  believed  to  sing 
their  own  dirges. 

P  209 


OVID 

sed  dedimus  poenas,  Scythicique  in  finibus  Histri 

ille  pharetrati  lusor  Amoris  abcst. 
quod  superest,  animos l  ad  publica  carmina  flexi, 

et  memores  iussi  nominis  esse  mei.2 
25  si  tamen  e  vobis  aliquis  tarn  multa  requiret, 

unde  dolenda  canam,  multa  dolenda  tuli. 
non  haec  ingenio,  non  haec  componimus  arte  : 

materia  est  propriis  ingeniosa  malis. 
et  quota  fortunae  pars  est  in  carmine  nostrae  ? 
30      felix,  qui  patitur  quae  numcrare  potest  ! 

quot  frutices  silvae,  quot  flavas  Thybris  harenas, 

mollia  quot  Martis  gramina  campus  habet, 
tot  mala  pertulimus,  quorum  medicina  quiesque 

nulla  nisi  in  studio  est  Pieridumque  mora. 
35  "  quis  tibi,  Naso,  modus  lacrimosi  carminis  ?  "  inquis 

idem,  fortunae  qui  modus  huius  erit. 
quod  querar,  ilia  mihi  pleno  de  fonte  ministrat, 

nee  mea  sunt,  fati  verba  sed  ista  mei. 
at  mihi  si  cara  patriam  cum  coniuge  reddas, 
40      sint  vultus  hilares,  simque  quod  ante  fui. 
lenior  invicti  si  sit  mihi  Caesaris  ira, 

carmina  laetitiae  iam  tibi  plena  dabo. 
nee  tamen  ut  lusit,  rursus  mea  littera  ludet : 

sit  semel  ilia  ioco  luxuriata  meo. 
45  quod  probet  ipse,  canam,  poenae  modo  parte  levata 

barbariam  rigidos  eflfugiamque  Getas. 
interea  nostri  quid  agant,  nisi  triste,  libelli  ? 

tibia  funeribus  convenit  ista  meis. 

1  socios  :  numeros  Ehwald  *  sui 

210 


TRISTIA,  V.  i.  21-48 

ever  jest  ?  But  I  have  paid  the  penalty,  for  in 
the  lands  of  the  Scythian  Hister  he  who  played 
with  quiver-bearing  Love  is  an  exile.  And  besides  I 
have  turned  men's  minds  to  public  song  and  bidden 
them  remember  my  name.  Yet  if  someone  of  you 
asks  why  I  sing  so  many  grievous  things — many 
grievous  things  have  I  borne.  This  verse  I  compose 
not  by  inspiration,  not  by  art ;  the  theme  is  filled 
with  inspiration  by  its  own  evils.  And  how  small  a 
portion  of  my  lot  appears  in  my  verse  ?  Happy  he 
who  can  count  his  sufferings  !  As  many  as  the  twigs 
of  the  forest,  as  many  as  the  grains  of  Tiber's  yellow 
sands,  as  many  tender  grass-blades  as  the  field  of 
Mars  possesses,  so  many  ills  have  I  endured  for  which 
there  is  no  cure,  no  relief  save  in  whiling  away  my 
time  in  devotion  to  the  Pierians. 

35  "  What  limit,  Naso,  to  your  mournful  song  ?  " 
you  say.  The  same  that  shall  be  the  limit  to  this  state 
of  mine.  For  my  complaining  that  state  serves  me 
from  a  full  spring,  nor  are  these  words  mine  ;  they 
belong  to  my  fate.  But  should  you  restore  to  me 
my  country  and  my  dear  wife,  my  face  would  be  gay, 
and  I  should  be  what  I  once  was.  Should  uncon- 
querable Caesar's  wrath  be  milder  to  me,  forth  wit  h 
will  I  offer  you  verse  filled  with  joy.  Yet  no  writings 
of  mine  shall  again  wanton  as  once  they  wantoned  ; 
let  them  have  rioted  with  my  jests  but  once  !  I  will 
compose  something  which  he  will  himself  approve, 
if  only  a  part  of  my  punishment  be  removed  and  I 
escape  the  barbarian  world  and  the  stern  Getae. 
Meanwhile  what  should  be  the  theme  of  my  verse 
except  sorrow  ?  Such  is  the  pipe  whose  notes  befit 
this  funeral  of  mine. 

211 


OVID 

"  at  poteras  "  inquis  "  melius  mala  ferre  silendo, 
60      et  tacitus  casus  dissimulare  tuos." 

exigis  ut  nulli  gemitus  tormenta  sequantur, 

acceptoque  gravi  vulnere  flere  vetas  ? 
ipse  Perilleo  Phalaris  permisit  in  acre 

edere  mugitus  et  bovis  ore  queri. 
65  cum  Priami  lacrimis  ofFensus  non  sit  Achilles, 

tu  fletus  inhibes,  durior  hoste,  meos  ? 
cum  faceret  Nioben  orbam  Latonia  proles, 

non  tamen  et1  siccas  iussit  habere  genas. 
est  aliquid,  fatale  malum  per  verba  levare  : 
60      hoc  querulam  Procnen  Halcyonenque  facit. 
hoc  erat,  in  gelido  quare  Poeantius  antro 

voce  fatigaret  Lemnia  saxa  sua. 
strangulat  inclusus  dolor  atque  exaestuat 2  intus, 

cogitur  et  vires  multiplicare  suas. 
65  da  veniam  potius,  vel  totos  tolle  libellos, 

si  mihi  quod  prodest  hoc  3  tibi,  lector,  obest. 
sed  neque  obesse  potest,  ulli  nee  script  a  fuerunt 

nostra  nisi  auctori  perniciosa  suo. 
"  at  mala  sunt."    fateor.    quis  te  mala  sumere  cogit  ? 
70      aut  quis  deceptum  ponere  sumpta  vetat  ? 
ipse  nee  emendo,4  sed  ut  hie  deducta  legantur  ; 

non  sunt  ilia  suo  barbariora  loco, 
nee  me  Roma  suis  debet  conferre  poetis  : 

inter  Sauromatas  ingeniosus  eram. 
76  denique  nulla  mihi  captatur  gloria,  quaeque 
ingeniis  6  stimulos  subdere  fama  solet. 

1  et]  hanc  2  cor  aestuat 

8  sit  (sic)  ...  si  4  hoc  mando 

6  ingenii  vel  ingenio 


1  When  Priam  begged  for  the  body  of  Hector. 
212 


TRISTIA,  V.  i.  49-76 

49 "  But,"  you  say,  "  you  might  better  endure  your 
sorrows  by  keeping  silent,  and  in  silence  hide  your 
misfortunes."  Do  you  demand  that  no  groans  should 
ensue  upon  torture,  and  when  a  deep  wound  has  been 
received,  do  you  forbid  weeping  ?  Even  Phalaris 
allowed  Perillus  within  the  bronze  to  utter  bellows 
of  torture  through  the  mouth  of  the  bull.  When 
Priam's  tears  did  not  offend  Achilles,1  do  you,  more 
cruel  than  an  enemy,  restrain  me  from  weeping  ? 
Though  Latona's  children  made  Niobe  childless,  yet 
they  did  not  bid  her  cheeks  be  dry.  Tis  something 
to  lighten  with  words  a  fated  evil ;  to  this  are  due 
the  complaints  of  Procne  and  Haley  one.  This  was 
why  the  son  2  of  Poeas  in  his  chill  cave  wearied  with 
his  outcries  the  Lemnian  rocks.  A  suppressed 
sorrow  chokes  and  seethes  within,  multiplying  per- 
force its  own  strength. 

65  Indulge  me  rather,  or  else  away  with  all  my  books, 
if  that,  reader,  which  helps  me  harms  you.  Yet  it  cannot 
harm  you,  for  none  has  suffered  hurt  from  my  writings 
save  their  own  author.  "  But,"  you  say,  "  they  are 
poor  stuff."  I  admit  it.  Who  forces  you  to  take  up 
such  poor  stuff,  or  who  forbids  you,  when  you  find 
yourself  deceived,  to  lay  it  aside  ?  Even  I  do  not 
revise  them,  but  as  they  have  here  been  written,  so 
let  them  be  read  ; 3  they  are  not  more  barbarous 
than  the  place  of  their  origin.  Rome  ought  not  to 
compare  me  with  her  own  poets ;  'tis  among  the 
Sauromatae  that  I  am  a  genius  ! 

75  In  fine  I  court  no  renown  nor  that  fame  which 
usually  sets  the  spur  to  talent ;  I  would  not  have 

2  Philoctetes. 

8  Perhaps  ipse  nee  emenda,  sed,  etc.,  u  Do  you  (the 
addressee)  not  revise  them,"  etc. 

213 


OVID 

nolumus  assiduis  animum  tabescere  curis, 

quae  tamen  inrumpunt  quoque  vetantur  eunt. 
cur  scribam,  docui.     cur  mitt  am,  quaeritis,  isto  l  ? 
80      vobiscum  cupio  quolibet  esse  modo. 

II. 

Ecquid  ubi  e  Ponto  nova  venit  epistula,  palles, 

et  tibi  sollicita  solvitur  ilia  manu  ? 
pone  metum,  valeo  ;  corpusque,  quod  ante  laborum 

inpatiens  nobis  invalidumque  fuit, 
5  sufficit,  atque  ipso  vexatum  induruit  usu. 

an  magis  infirmo  non  vacat  esse  mihi  ? 
mens  tamen  aegra  iacet,  nee  tempore  robora  sumpsit, 

affectusque  animi,  qui  fuit  ante,  manet. 
quaeque  mora  spatioque  suo  coitura  putavi 
10      vulnera  non  aliter  quam  modo  facta  dolent. 
scilicet  exiguis  prodest  annosa  vetustas  ; 

grandibus  accedunt  tempore  damna  mails, 
paene  decem  totis  aluit  Poeantius  annis 

pestiferum  tumido  vulnus  ab  angue  datum. 
15  Telephus  aeterna  consumptus  tabe  perisset, 

si  non,  quae  nocuit,  dextra  tulisset  opem. 
et  mea,  si  facinus  nullum  commisirnus,  opto, 

vulnera  qui  fecit,  facta  levare  velit, 
contentusque  mei  iam  tandem  parte  doloris 
20      exiguum  pleno  de  mare  demat  aquae, 
detrahat  ut  multum,  multum  restabit  acerbi,2 

parsque  meae  poenae  totius  instar  erit. 
litora  quot  conchas,  quot  amoena  rosaria3  flores, 

quotve  soporiferum  grana  papaver  habet, 

1  istos  :  isto  Heinsius  2  acervi 

3  amoenos  hostia  vel  a.  postia 

1  Philoctetes. 
214 


TRISTIA,  V.  i.  77—11.  24 

my  soul  waste  away  with  continual  woes,  which 
nevertheless  break  in  upon  me,  entering  where  they 
are  forbidden.  Why  I  write  I  have  told  you.  Why 
do  I  send  my  writings  to  you,  you  ask.  I  am  eager 
to  be  with  you  all  in  some  fashion — no  matter  how. 

II.  To  His  WIFE 

What  ?  When  a  fresh  letter  has  come  from  Pontus, 
do  you  grow  pale,  do  you  open  it  with  anxious 
hand  ?  Put  aside  your  fear  :  I  am  well,  and  my 
frame,  which  before  could  endure  no  toils  and  had 
no  strength,  now  bears  up  and  under  the  very 

harassings  of   experience   has   become    hardened 

or  is  it  rather  that  I  have  no  leisure  to  be  weak  ? 
But  my  mind  lies  ill,  nor  has  time  given  it  strength  ; 
my  feelings  remain  the  same  as  of  old.  The  wounds 
that  I  thought  would  close  with  passing  time  pain 
me  no  otherwise  than  if  they  had  been  freshly  made. 
Yes,  little  troubles  are  helped  by  the  flight  of  years  ; 
with  great  ones  time  but  increases  the  ruin  they 
cause.  For  almost  ten  whole  years  the  son l  of 
Poeas  nursed  the  baneful  wound  given  him  by  the 
venom-swollen  snake.  Telephus  would  have  died, 
destroyed  by  his  eternal  disease,  had  not  the  hand 
that  harmed  him  borne  him  aid.  My  wounds  also, 
if  I  have  committed  no  crime,  may  their  maker,  I 
pray,  desire  to  heal,  and  now  at  length  satisfied  with 
<a  portion  of  my  suffering,  may  he  draw  off  a  little  of 
the  water  from  a  brimming  sea.  Though  he  draw 
much,  much  bitterness  will  remain,  and  a  part  of  my 
penalty  will  be  as  good  as  the  whole.  As  many  as 
are  the  shells  on  the  shore,  the  flowers  in  the  lovely 
rose  gardens,  the  seeds  of  the  sleep-producing  poppy, 

215 


OVID 

25  silva  feras  quot  alit,  quot  piscibus  unda  natatur, 

quot  tenerum  pennis  aera  pulsat  avis, 
tot  premor  adversis  :  quae  si  comprendere  coner, 

Icariae  numerum  dicere  coner  aquae, 
utque  viae  casus,  ut  amara  pericula  ponti, 
30      ut  taceam  strictas  in  mea  fata  manus, 
barbara  me  tellus  orbisque  novissima  magni 

sustinet  et  saevo  cinctus  ab  hoste  locus, 
hinc  ego  traicerer  * — neque  enim  mea  culpa  cruenta 

est — 

esset,  quae  debet,  si  tibi  cura  mei. 
35  ille  deus,  bene  quo  Romana  potentia  nixa  est, 

saepe  suo  victor  lenis  in  hoste  fuit. 
quid  dubitas  et  tuta  times  ?     accede  rogaque  : 

Caesare  nil  ingens  mitius  orbis  habet. 
me  miserum  !  quid  agam,  si  proxima  quaeque  re- 

linquunt  ? 

40      subtrahis  effracto  tu  quoque  colla  iugo  ? 
quo  ferar  ?  unde  petam  lassis  solacia  rebus  ? 
ancora  iam  nostram  non  tenet  ulla  ratem. 
videris 2 !    ipse  sacram,  quarnvis  invisus,  ad  aram 
confugiam  :  nullas  summovet  ara  manus. 


Precatio 

45  Adloquor  en  absens  absentia  numina  supplex, 

si  fas  est  homini  cum  love  posse  loqui. 
arbiter  imperii,  quo  certum  est  sospite  cunctos 
Ausoniae  curam  gentis  habere  deos, 

0  decus,  o  patriae  per  te  florentis  imago, 
50      o  vir  non  ipso,  quern  regis,  orbe  minor — 

1  traicerem  vel  transigerer        *  viderit  codd. :  corr.  Ehwald 
216 


TRISTIA,  V.  n.  25-50 

as  many  beasts  as  the  forest  supports,  as  many  as 
the  fishes  that  swim  in  the  sea,  or  the  feathers  with 
which  a  bird  beats  the  yielding  air — by  so  many 
sorrows  am  I  overwhelmed.  Should  I  essay  to 
include  them  all,  as  well  essay  to  tell  the  tale  of  the 
Icarian  waters.  The  dangers  of  the  road,  the  bitter 
perils  of  the  sea,  the  hands  raised  to  slay  me — to  say 
naught  of  these,  a  barbarian  land  the  most  remote 
in  the  vast  world,  a  place  girt  by  cruel  enemies, 
holds  me.  From  here  might  I  pass — for  my  fault 
has  no  taint  of  blood — if  you  had  the  love  for  me 
which  is  my  due.  That  god,  on  whom  the  power  of 
Rome  hath  found  happy  stay,  to  his  own  enemy  hath 
often  been  a  gentle  victor.  Why  hesitate  and  fear 
what  has  no  peril  ?  Approach,  entreat  him  !  the 
vast  world  holds  naught  more  lenient  than  Caesar. 
Wretched  me  !  What  am  I  to  do  if  all  that  is  nearest 
abandons  me  ?  Do  you  too  break  the  yoke  and  with- 
draw your  neck  ?  WThither  shall  I  rush  ?  Whence 
seek  comfort  for  my  weary  lot  ?  No  anchor  now 
holds  my  bark.  You  shall  see  !  Even  I,  hated 
though  I  am,  will  seek  refuge  at  the  holy  altar  ; 
no  hands  does  the  altar  repel. 


The  Suppliant's  Prayer 

Lo  !  I  an  absent  suppliant  address  an  absent 
deity,  if  'tis  right  for  a  human  being  to  have  power 
of  converse  with  Jupiter. 

47  Lord  of  the  empire,  whose  safety  assures  the  pro- 
tection of  all  the  gods  for  the  Ausonian  race,  thou 
glory,  thou  image  of  a  fatherland  that  hath  success 
through  thee,  hero  not  less  mighty  than  the  very 

217 


OVID 

sic  habites  terras  et  te  desideret  aether, 

sic  ad  pacta  tibi  sidera  tardus  eas — 
parce,  precor,  minimamque  tuo  de  fulmine  partem 

deme  !  satis  poenae,  quod  superabit,  erit. 
55  ira  quidem  moderata  tua  est,  vitamque  dedisti, 

nee  mihi  ius  civis  nee  mihi  nomen  abest, 
nee  mea  concessa  est  aliis  fortuna,  nee  exul 

edieti  verbis  nominor  ipse  tui. 

omniaque  haec  timui,  quia  me  meruisse  videbam1; 
tiO      sed  tua  peccato  lenior  ira  meo  est. 
arva  relegatum  iussisti  visere  Ponti, 

et  Scythicum  profuga  scindere  puppe  fretum. 
iussus  ad  Euxini  deformia  litora  veni 

aequoris — haec  gelido  terra  sub  axe  iacet — 
65  nee  me  tarn  cruciat  numquam  sine  frigore  caelum, 

glaebaque  canenti  semper  obusta  gelu, 
nesciaque 2  est  vocis  quod  barbara  lingua  Latinae, 
Graecaque  quod  Getico  victa3  loquella  sono  est, 
quam  quod  finitimo  cinctus  premor  undique  Marte,4 
70      vixque  brevis  tutum5  murus  ab  hoste  facit. 
pax  tamen  interdum  est,  pacis  fiducia  numquam : 

sic  hie  nunc  patitur,  nunc  timet  arma  locus, 
hinc  ego  dum  muter,  vel  me  Zanclaea  Charybdis 

devoret  atque  suis  ad  Styga  mittat  aquis, 
75  vel  rapidae  flammis  urar  patienter  in  Aetnae, 

vel  freta  Leucadii  mittar  in  alta  dei.6 
quod  petimus,  poena  est :    neque  enim  miser  esse 

recuso, 
sed  precor  ut  possim  tutius  esse  miser. 

1  quoniam  .  .  .  videbar  2  -que]  quam 

8  vincta  vel  iuncta  4  finitima  .  .  morte 

6  tutos  6  leucadio  .  .  deo 

1  See  Introd,  p.  xviii. 
218 


TRISTIA,  V.  n.  51-78 

world  thou  rulest  (so  mayst  thou  dwell  on  earth  and 
heaven  long  for  thee,  so  mayst  thou  be  late  in  passing 
to  thy  promised  stars)  spare  me,  I  beseech  thee,  and 
take  but  the  least  part  from  thy  lightning's  stroke  ; 
sufficient  will  be  the  penalty  that  remains.  Thine 
anger  is  indeed  moderate,  for  thou  hast  granted  me 
life,  I  lack  neither  the  right  nor  the  name  of  citizen, 
nor  has  my  fortune  been  granted  to  others,  and  I  am 
not  called  "  exile  "  by  the  terms  of  thy  decree.  All 
these  things  I  feared  because  I  saw  that  I  had 
deserved  them,  but  thy  wrath  is  lighter  than  my  sin. 
"  Relegated  "  l  didst  thou  bid  me  come  to  view  the 
fields  by  the  Pontus,  cleaving  the  Scythian  sea  in  a 
fleeing  bark.  By  thy  command  I  have  come  to  the 
formless  shores  of  the  Euxine  water — this  land  lies 
beneath  the  frigid  pole — nor  am  I  so  much  tortured  by 
a  climate  never  free  from  cold  and  a  soil  ever  shrivelled 
by  white  frost,  by  the  fact  that  the  barbarian  tongue 
knows  not  a  Latin  voice  and  Greek  is  mastered  by 
the  sound  of  Getic,  as  that  I  am  surrounded  and  hard 
pressed  on  every  side  by  war  close  at  hand  and  that 
a  low  wall  scarce  gives  me  safety  from  the  foe.  Yet 
peace  there  is  at  times,  confidence  in  peace  never  : 
so  does  this  place  now  suffer,  now  fear  attack.  If  I 
may  but  exchange  this  place  for  another,  let  even 
Zanclaean  Charybdis  swallow  me,  sending  me  by  her 
waters  to  the  Styx,  or  let  me  be  resigned  to  burn  in 
the  flames  of  scorching  Aetna  or  hurled  into  the  deep 
sea  of  the  Leucadian  god.2  What  I  seek  is  punish- 
ment, for  I  do  not  reject  suffering,  but  I  beg  that 
I  may  suffer  in  greater  safety  ! 

8  Malefactors  were  hurled  from  the  cliff  near  Apollo's 
temple  on  the  Leucadian  promontory. 

219 


OVID 


III. 

Ilia  dies  haec  est,  qua  te  celebrare  poetae, 

si  modo  non  fallunt  tempora,  Bacche,  solent, 
festaque  odoratis  innectunt  tempora  sertis, 

et  dicunt  laudes  ad  tua  vina  tuas. 
6  inter  quos,  memini,  dum  me  mea  fata  sinebant, 

non  invisa  tibi  pars  ego  saepe  fui, 
quern  nunc  suppositum  stellis  Cynosuridos  Ursae 

iuncta  tenet  crudis  Sarmatis  ora  Getis. 
quique  prius  mollem  vacuamque  laboribus  egi 
10      in  studiis  vitam  Pieridumque  choro, 

nunc  procul  a  patria  Geticis  circumsonor  armis. 

multa  prius  pelago  multaque  passus  humo. 
sive  mini  casus  sive  hoc  dedit  ira  deorum, 

nubila  nascenti  seu  mihi  Parca  fuit, 
15  tu  tamen  e  sacris  hederae l  cultoribus  unum 

numine  debueras  sustinuisse  tuo. 
an  dominae  fati  quicquid  cecinere  sorores, 

omne  sub  arbitrio  desinit  esse  dei  ? 
ipse  quoque  aetherias  meritis  invectus  es  arces, 
20      quo  non  exiguo  facta  labor  e  via  est. 

nee  patria  est  habitata  tibi,  sed  adusque  nivosum 

Strymona  venisti  Marticolamque  Geten, 
Persidaque  et  lato  spatiantem  flumine  Gangen, 

et  quascumque  bibit  decolor  Indus  aquas. 
25  scilicet  hanc  legem  nentes  fatalia  Parcae 

stamina  bis  genito  bis  cecinere  tibi. 
me  quoque,  si  fas  est  exemplis  ire  deorum, 

ferrea  sors  vitae  difficilisque  premit. 

1  hederae]  me  de 

1  The  Small  Bear. 
220 


TRISTIA,  V.  in.  1-28 


III.  AN  APPEAL  TO  BACCHUS 

This  is  the  day,  if  only  I  do  not  mistake  the  time, 
on  which  poets  are  wont  to  praise  thee,  Bacchus, 
binding  their  brows  with  sweet-scented  garlands,  and 
singing  thy  praises  over  thine  own  wine.  Among 
them,  I  remember,  whilst  my  fate  allowed,  oft  did  I 
play  a  part  not  distasteful  to  thee,  but  now  I  lie 
beneath  the  stars  of  the  Cynosurian  Bear,1  in  the 
grip  of  the  Sarmatian  shore,  close  to  the  uncivilized 
Getae.  I  who  before  led  a  life  of  ease,  toil-free,  amid 
studies  in  the  band  of  the  Pierians,  now  far  from  my 
country  am  surrounded  by  the  clash  of  Getic  arms, 
after  many  sufferings  on  the  sea,  many  on  land. 
Whether  chance  brought  this  upon  me  or  the  wrath 
of  the  gods,  or  whether  a  clouded  Fate  attended  my 
birth,  thou  at  least  shouldst  have  supported  by  thy 
divine  power  one  of  the  worshippers  of  thine  ivy. 
Or  is  it  true  that  whatever  the  sisters,  mistresses  of 
fate,  have  ordained,  ceases  wholly  to  be  under  a  god's 
power  ?  Thou  thyself  wast  borne  by  thy  merit  to 
the  citadel  of  heaven,  and  the  path  thither  was  made 
by  no  slight  toil.  Thou  didst  not  dwell  in  thy  native 
country,  but  all  the  way  to  snowy  Strymon  thou  hast 
gone  and  the  Mars-worshipping  Getae,  Persia,  and 
the  broad-flowing  Ganges,  and  all  the  waters  that 
the  swarthy  Indian  drinks.  Such  doubtless  was  the 
law  twice  ordained  for  thee  by  the  Parcae  who  spun 
the  fated  threads  at  thy  double  birth.2  I  too  (if 
'tis  right  to  make  comparison  with  the  gods)  am 
crushed  by  an  iron  and  a  difficult  lot.  I  have  fallen 

8  Bacchus  was  born  prematurely  by  Semele,  and  a  second 
time  after  proper  nourishment  in  the  thigh  of  Jupiter. 

221 


OVID 

illo  nee  levius  cecidi,  quern  magna  locutum 
30      reppulit  a  Thebis  luppiter  igne  suo. 
ut  tamen  audisti  percussum  fulmine  vatem, 

admonitu  matris  condoluisse  potes, 
et  potes  aspiciens  circum  tua  sacra  poetas 

"  nescioquis  nostri  "  dicere  "  cultor  abest." 
35  fer,  bone  Liber,  opem  :  sic  altera l  degravet  ulmum 

vitis  et  incluso  plena  sit  uva  mero, 
sic  tibi  cum  Bacchis  Satyrorum  gnava  iuventus 

adsit,  et  attonito  non  taceare  sono, 
ossa  bipenniferi  sic  sint  male  pressa  Lycurgi, 
40      impia  nee  poena  Pentheos  umbra  vacet,2 
sic  micet  aeternum  vicinaque  sidera  vincat 

coniugis  in  caelo  clara  corona  tuae  : 
hue  ades  et  casus  releves,  pulcherrime,  nostros, 

unum  de  numero  me  memor  esse  tuo. 
45  sunt  dis  inter  se  commercia.     flectere  tempta 

Caesareum  numen  numine,  Bacche,  tuo. 
vos  quoque,  consortes  studii,  pia  turba,  poetae, 

haec  eadem  sumpto  quisque  rogate  mero. 
atque  aliquis  vestrum,  Nasonis  nomine  dicto, 
50      opponat 3  lacrimis  pocula  mixta  suis, 

admonitusque  mei,  cum  circumspexerit  omnes, 

dicat  "  ubi  est  nostri  pars  modo  Naso  chori  ?  " 
idque  ita,  si  vestrum  merui  candore  favorem, 

nullaque  iudicio  littera  laesa  rneo  est, 
65  si,  veterum  digne  veneror  cum  scripta  virorum, 

proxima  non  illis  esse  minora  reor. 
sic  igitur  dextro  faciatis  Apolline  carmen  : 

quod  licet,  inter  vos  nonien  habete  meum. 

1  altam  2  vacet]  caret  8  apponat 

1  Capaneus.  2  i.e.  two  vines  instead  of  one. 

8  Ariadne. 

222 


TRISTIA,  V.  in.  29-58 

no  more  lightly  than  he l  whom  Jupiter,  for  his 
overweening  utterance,  drove  back  from  Thebes 
with  his  lightning.  Yet  when  thou  didst  hear  that 
a  poet  had  been  smitten  by  the  bolt,  remembering 
thy  mother,  thou  mightest  have  felt  sympathy  and 
gazing  upon  the  bards  about  thine  altar  thou  mightest 
have  said,  "  Some  worshipper  of  mine  is  missing." 

35  Bring  aid  to  me,  kind  Liber  !  So  may  a  second  2 
vine  weigh  down  the  elm  and  the  grape-clusters  be 
filled  with  prisoned  wine,  so  may  the  Bacchae  and 
the  young  vigour  of  the  Satyrs  attend  thee  and  may 
their  frenzied  cries  keep  not  silent  thy  name ;  so 
may  the  bones  of  axe-bearing  Lycurgus  be  heavily 
weighed  down,  nor  may  the  wicked  shade  of  Pentheus 
ever  be  free  of  punishment,  so  may  the  crowrn  of  thy 
spouse  3  bright  in  the  sky  glitter  for  ever,  surpassing 
the  stars  close  at  hand — hither  come  and  lighten  my 
misfortunes,  fairest  of  gods,  remembering  that  I  am 
one  of  thine  own.  Gods  deal  with  gods ;  do  thou, 
O  Bacchus,  seek  to  sway  Caesar's  power  divine  by 
thine  own.  Do  ye,  too,  O  poets  who  share  in  my 
pursuit,  loyal  throng,  take  each  of  you  unmixed  wine 
and  make  this  same  petition.  And  let  someone  of 
you,  uttering  Naso's  name,  pledge  him  in  a  bowl 
mingled  with  his  own  tears,  and  in  thought  of  me, 
when  he  has  gazed  around  upon  all,  let  him  say, 
"  Where  is  Naso,  who  was  but  now  a  part  of  our 
company  ?  " — and  this  only  if  I  have  earned  your 
approval  by  my  sincerity,  if  no  book  was  ever  injured 
by  verdict  of  mine,  if  in  deserved  reverence  for  the 
writings  of  men  of  old  I  yet  consider  not  inferior 
those  most  recent.  As  then  I  pray  ye  may  com- 
pose under  Apollo's  favour  :  keep — for  this  is  lawful 
— my  name  among  you. 

223 


OVID 

IV. 

Litore  ab  Euxino  Nasonis  epistula  veni, 

lassaque  faota  mari  lassaque  facta  via, 
qui  mihi  flens  dixit  "  tu,  cui  licet,  aspice  Romam. 

heu  quanto  melior  sors  tua  sorte  mea  est  !  " 
5  flens  quoque  me  scripsit,  nee  qua  signabar,  ad  os  est 

ante,  sed  ad  madidas  gemma  relata  genas. 
tristitiae  causam  siquis  cognoscere  quaerit, 

ostendi  solem  postulat  ille  sibi, 
nee  frondem  in  silvis,  nee  aperto  mollia  prato 
10      gramma,  nee  pleno  fmniine  cernit  aquam  1 ; 
quid  Priamus  doleat,  mirabitur,  Heetore  rapto, 

quidve  Philoctctes  ictus  ab  angue  gemat. 
di  facerent  utinam  talis  status  esset  in  illo, 

ut  non  tristitiae  causa  dolenda  foret ! 
15  fert  tamen,  ut  debet,  casus  patienter  amaros, 

more  nee  indomiti  frena  recusat  equi. 
nee  fore  perpetuam  sperat  sibi  numinis  iram, 

conscius  in  culpa  non  scelus  esse  sua. 
saepe  refert,  sit  quanta  dei  dementia,  cuius 
20      se  quoque  in  exemplis  adnumerare  solet  : 

nam,  quod  opes  teneat  patrias,  quod  nomina  eivis, 

denique  quod  vivat,  munus  habere  dei. 
te  tamen  (o,  si  quid  credis  mihi,  carior  illi 

omnibus)  in  toto  peetore  semper  habet ; 
25  teque  Menoetiaden,  te,  qui  comitatus  Oresten, 

te  vocat  Aegiden  Euryalumque  suum. 
nee  patriam  magis  ille  suam  desiderat  et  quae 

plurima  cum  patria  sentit  abesse  sibi, 
quam  vultus  oculosque  tuos,  o  dulcior  illo 
30      melle,  quod  in  ceris  Attica  ponit  apis. 


1  Ovid.  2  Palroclus.  8  Pylades.  4  Theseus. 


TRISTTA,  V.  iv.  1-30 

IV.  THE  POET'S  LETTER  GREETS  A  TRUE  FRIEND 

From  the  Euxine  shore  have  I  come,  a  letter  of 
Naso's,  wearied  by  the  sea,  wearied  by  the  road. 
Weeping  he  said  to  me,  "  Do  thou,  who  art  allowed, 
look  on  Rome.  Alas  !  how  much  better  is  thy  lot 
than  mine  !  "  Weeping  too  he  wrote  me,  and  the 
gem  with  which  I  was  sealed,  he  lifted  first,  not  to 
his  lips,  but  to  his  tear-drenched  cheeks. 

7  Whoever  seeks  to  learn  the  cause  of  his  sorrow  is 
asking  that  the  sun  be  shown  to  him  ;  he  sees  not 
the  leaves  in  the  wood,  the  soft  grass  in  the  open 
meadow,  or  the  water  in  the  full  stream  ;  he  will 
wonder  why  Priam  grieves  at  the  ravishing  of  Hector, 
why  Philoctetes  groans  after  the  snake  has  struck. 
Would  that  the  gods  might  bring  to  pass  such  lot 
for  him  !  that  he  had  no  cause  of  sorrow  to  lament ! 
Yet  spite  of  all  he  bears,  as  he  ought,  with  patience 
his  bitter  misfortunes,  nor,  like  an  unbroken  horse, 
does  he  refuse  the  bit.  He  hopes  that  not  forever 
will  the  god's  wrath  endure,  aware  that  in  his  fault 
there  is  no  crime.  Often  he  recalls  how  great  is  the 
god's  mercy,  of  wrhich  he  is  wont  to  count  himself 
also  as  an  example  ;  for  that  he  retains  his  father's 
wealth,  the  name  of  citizen — in  fine  his  very  life  he 
holds  as  a  gift  of  the  god. 

23  But  thee — O,  if  thou  belie  vest  me  in  anything, 
dearer  than  all  to  him — thee  he  holds  constantly  in  his 
whole  heart.  Thee  he  calls  his  Menoetiades,2  thee 
his  Orestes'  comrade,3  thee  his  Aegides,4  or  his 
Euryalus.  He  longs  not  more  for  his  country  and  the 
many  things  with  his  country  whose  absence  he  feels, 
than  for  thy  face  and  eyes,  O  thou  who  art  sweeter 
than  the  honey  stored  in  the  wax  by  the  Attic  bee. 


OVID 

saepe  etiam  maerens  tempus  reminiscitur  illud, 

quod  non  praeventum  morte  fuisse  dolet ; 
cumque  alii  fugerent  subitae  contagia  cladis, 

nee  vellent  ictae  limen  adire  domus, 
35  te  sibi  cum  paucis  meminit  mansisse  fidelem, 

si  paucos  aliquis  tresve  duosve  vocat. 
quamvis  attonitus,  sensit  tamen  omnia,  nee  te 

se  minus  adversis  indoluisse  suis. 
verba  solet  vultumque  tuum  gemitusque  referre, 
40      et  te  flente  suos  emaduisse  sinus  : 

quam  sibi  praestiteris,  qua  consolatus  amicum 

sis  ope,  solandus  cum  simul  ipse  fores, 
pro  quibus  affirmat  fore  se  memoremque  piumque, 

sive  diem  videat  sive  tegatur  humo, 
45  per  caput  ipse  suum  solitus  iurare  tuumque, 

quod  scio  non  illi  vilius  esse  suo. 
plena  tot  ac  tantis  referetur  gratia  factis, 

nee  sinet  ille  tuos  litus  arare  boves. 
fac  modo,  constanter  profugum  tueare  :  quod  ille, 
60      qui  bene  te  novit,  non  rogat,  ipsa  rogo. 


V. 

Annuus  adsuetum  dominae  natalis  honorem 

exigit  :  ite  manus  ad  pia  sacra  meae. 
sic  quondam  festum  Laertius  egerat  heros 

forsan  in  extremo  coniugis  orbe  diem. 
6  lingua  favens  adsit,  nostrorum  oblita  malorum, 

quae,  puto,  dedidicit  iam  bona  verba  loqui  ; 
quaeque  semel  toto  vestis  mihi  sumitur  anno, 

sumatur  fatis  discolor  alba  meis  ; 

1  Ulysses. 
226 


TRISTIA,  V.  iv.  31— v.  8 

Often  too  in  his  grief  he  remembers  that  time,  which 
to  his  sorrow  was  not  anticipated  by  death,  when 
others  were  fleeing  the  pollution  of  sudden  disaster, 
unwilling  to  approach  the  threshold  of  the  stricken 
house,  thou  with  a  few  others  didst  remain  faithful — 
if  anybody  terms  three  or  two  "  a  few."  Though 
sore  smitten,  yet  he  realized  everything — that  thou 
not  less  than  himself  didst  grieve  over  his  misfortunes. 
Thy  words,  thy  face,  thy  laments  he  is  wont  to  recall, 
and  his  own  bosom  wet  with  thy  tears  ;  how  thou 
didst  support  him,  with  what  resource  thou  didst 
comfort  him,  although  thou  wert  thyself  at  the  same 
time  in  need  of  comfort. 

43  For  this  he  assures  thee  that  he  will  be  mindful 
and  loyal,  whether  he  behold  the  light  of  day  or  be 
covered  by  earth,  swearing  it  by  his  own  life  and  by 
thine  which  I  know  he  counts  not  cheaper  than  his 
own.  Full  recompense  for  these  many  great  acts 
shall  be  rendered  ;  he  will  not  suffer  thine  oxen  to 
plough  the  shore.  Only  see  thou  dost  constantly 
protect  the  exile  !  What  he,  who  knows  thee  well, 
asketh  not,  that  I  ask. 

V.  MY  LADY'S  BIRTHDAY 

The  year  has  flown  and  the  birthday  of  my  lady 
exacts  its  customary  honour  ;  go,  hands  of  mine, 
perform  affection 's  rites.  Thus  of  old  did  the 
Laertian  hero 1  pass,  perhaps  at  the  world's  edge, 
his  wife's  gala  day.  Let  me  have  a  tongue  of  good 
omen  forgetful  of  my  misfortunes  (my  tongue  has, 
I  think,  unlearned  ere  now  its  utterance  of  propitious 
words !)  and  the  garb  that  I  put  on  only  once  in  the 
whole  year  let  me  now  put  on — the  white  garb  that 

227 


OVID 

araque  gramineo  viridis  de  caespite  fiat, 
10      et  velet  tepidos  nexa  corona  focos. 

da  mihi  tura,  puer,  pingues  facientia  flammas, 

quodque  pio  fusum  stridat  in  igne  merum. 
optime  natalis  !  quamvis  procul  absumus,  opto 

candidus  hue  venias  dissimilisque  meo, 
15  si  quod  et  instabat  dominae  miserabile  vulnus, 

sit  perfuncta  meis  tempus  in  omne  malis  ; 
quaeque  gravi  nuper  plus  quam  quassata  procella  est, 

quod  superest,  tutum  per  mare  navis  eat. 
ilia  domo  nataque  sua  patriaque  fruatur 
20      — erepta  haec  uni  sit  satis  esse  mihi — 
quatenus  et  non  est  in  caro  coniuge  felix, 

pars  vitae  tristi  cetera  nube  vacet. 
vivat,  ametque  virum,  quoniam  sic  cogitur,  absens, 

consumatque  annos,  sed  diuturna,  suos. 
25  adicerem  et  nostros,  sed  ne  contagia  fati 

corrumpant  timeo,  quos  agit  ipsa,  mei. 
nil  homini  certum  est.     fieri  quis  posse  putaret, 

ut  facerem  in  mediis  haec  ego  sacra  Getis  ? 
aspice  ut  aura  tamen  fumos  e  ture  coortos 
30      in  partes  Italas  et  loea  dextra  ferat. 

sensus  inest  igitur  nebulis,  quas  exigit  ignis  : 

consilio  fugiunt  aethera,  Ponte,1  tuum. 
consilio,  commune  sacrum  cum  fiat  in  ara 

fratribus,  alterna  qui  periere  manu, 
35  ipsa  sibi  discors,  tarnquam  mandetur  ab  illis, 

scinditur  in  partes  atra  favilla  duas. 
hoc,  memini,  quondam  fieri  non  posse  loquebar, 

et  me  Battiades  iudice  falsus  erat : 

1  con&iliuni  .  .  .  cetera  pene  corr.  Withof 

1  Perilla.  *  Eteocles  and  Pol yn  ices. 

228 


TRISTIA,  V.  v.  9-38 

matches  not  my  fate.  Let  there  be  made  a  green 
altar  of  grassy  turf,  the  warm  hearth  veiled  with  a 
braided  garland.  Give  me  incense,  boy,  that  pro- 
duces rich  flame,  and  wine  that  hisses  when  poured 
in  the  pious  fire. 

13  Best  of  birthdays  !  though  1  am  far  away,  I  pray 
thou  mayst  come  hither  bright  and  unlike  my  own. 
If  any  wretched  wound  is  threatening  my  lady  may 
she  have  done  with  it  forever  by  means  of  my  mis- 
fortunes, and  may  the  bark  which  but  recently  was 
more  than  shaken  by  a  violent  blast  pass  in  future 
over  an  untroubled  sea.  May  she  continue  to  enjoy 
her  home,  her  daughter,1  and  her  native  land  (let  it 
suffice  that  these  things  have  been  taken  from  me 
alone),  and  in  as  much  as  she  is  not  blessed  in  the 
person  of  her  dear  husband,  may  all  the  other  part 
of  her  life  be  free  from  gloomy  cloud.  Long  life  to 
her  !  and  may  she  in  absence,  since  to  this  she  is 
forced,  love  her  husband,  and  pass — but  late  ! — to 
the  end  of  her  years.  I  would  add  my  own  too,  but 
I  fear  the  pollution  of  my  fate  would  infect  those 
which  she  herself  is  living. 

27  Naught  is  certain  for  man.  Who  would  have 
thought  it  possible  that  I  should  be  performing  these 
rites  amidst  the  Getae  ?  Yet  look  how  the  breeze 
wafts  the  smoke  that  rises  from  the  incense  in  the 
direction  of  Italy  and  places  of  good  omen.  Sen- 
tience, then,  resides  in  the  vapour  thrown  off  by 
the  fire  ;  designedly  it  flees  thy  sky,  O  Pontus.  De- 
signedly, when  the  common  offering  is  made  on  the 
altar  to  the  brothers  who  died  by  each  other's  hands,2 
the  very  ashes,  in  dissension  as  if  at  their  command, 
separate  blackly  into  two  parts.  This,  I  remember, 
I  once  said  could  not  be,  and  in  my  opinion  Battus' 

229 


OVID 

omnia  nunc  credo,  cum  tu  non  stultus  ab  Arcto 
40      terga,  vapor,  dederis  Ausoniamque  petas. 
haec  ergo  lux  est,  quae  si  non  orta  fuisset, 

nulla  fuit  misero  festa  videnda  mihi. 
edidit  haec  mores  illis  heroism 1  aequos, 

quis  erat  Eetion  Icariusque  pater. 
45  nata  pudicitia  est,  virtus  2  probitasque,  fidesque, 

at  non  sunt  ista  gaudia  nata  die,3 
sed  labor  et  curae  fortunaque  moribus  impar, 

iustaque  de  viduo  paene  querella  toro. 
scilicet  adversis  probitas  exercita  rebus 
50      tristi  materiam  tempore  laudis  habet. 
si  nihil  infesti  durus  vidisset  Ulixes, 

Penelope  felix  sed  sine  laude  foret. 
victor  Echionias  si  vir  penetrasset  in  arces, 

forsitan  Euadnen  vix  sua  nosset  humus. 
65  cum  Pelia  genitae  tot  sint,  cur  nobilis  una  est  ? 

nempe  fuit  misero  nupta  quod  una  viro. 
effice  ut  Iliacas  tangat  prior  alter  harenas, 

Laudamia  nihil  cur  referatur  erit. 
et  tua,  quod  malles,4  pietas  ignota  maneret, 
60      implerent  venti  si  mea  vela  sui. 

di  tamen  et  Caesar  dis  accessure,  sed  olim, 

aequarint  Pylios  cum  tua  fata  dies, 
non  mihi,  qui  poenam  fateor  meruisse,  sed  illi 

parcite,  quae  nullo  digna  dolore  dolet. 

1  heroibus  corr.  Salmasiw  a  moris  :  virtus  Owen 

8  die]  fide  *  mallem 

1  Callimachus,  who  must  h^ve  touched  somewhere  upon 
this  myth. 
1  Andromache  and  Penelope. 


230 


TRISTIA,  V.  v.  39-64 

son  *  was  mistaken.  Now  I  believe  all,  since  thou,  O 
vapour,  hast  in  wisdom  turned  from  Arctos  and 
seekest  Ausonia. 

41  This  then  is  the  dawn  in  defect  of  whose  rising 
there  would  have  been  no  gala  day  to  be  seen  by 
wretched  me.  This  brought  forth  a  character  equal- 
ling those  famed  heroines 2  whose  fathers  were 
Eetion  and  Icarus.  Chastity  was  born  on  this  day 
of  thine,  virtue  and  uprightness,  and  loyalty  ;  but  no 
joys — rather  woe  and  cares  and  a  fortune  unfitted  to 
thy  character,  and  a  plaint  all  but  just  about  thy 
widowed  couch.  Assuredly  uprightness  schooled  by 
adversity  in  time  of  sorrow  affords  a  theme  for  praise. 
Had  sturdy  Ulysses  seen  no  misfortune,  Penelope 
would  have  been  happy  but  unpraised.  Had  her 
husband 8  pressed  victoriously  into  the  citadel 4  of 
Echion,  perchance  Euadne  would  scarce  have  been 
known  to  her  own  land.  Though  Pelias  had  so  many 
daughters,  why  is  one 5  only  famed  ?  Doubtless 
because  she  alone  wedded  an  ill-starred  husband.6 
Let  but  another  be  first  to  touch  the  sands  of  Ilium 
and  there  will  be  no  reason  why  Laodamia  should 
be  remembered.  Thy  loyalty,  too,  as  thou  wouldst 
prefer,  would  remain  unknown,  if  favouring  winds 
filled  my  sails.  Yet,  O  gods  and  Caesar  destined  to 
be  one  of  the  gods — but  at  that  time  when  thy  life 
shall  have  equalled  the  days  of  the  Pylian  7 — spare, 
not  me,  who  confess  that  I  have  deserved  a  punish- 
ment, but  her  who  grieves  albeit  she  deserves  not 
grief. 

8  Capaneus,  *  Thebes.  *  Alcestis. 

6  Admetus.  7  Nestor, 


231 


OVID 


VI. 

Tu  quoque,  nostrarum  quondam  fiducia  rerum, 

qui  mihi  confugium,  qui  mihi  portus  eras, 
til  quoque  suscepti  curam  dimittis  amici, 

officiique  pium  tarn  cito  ponis  onus  ? 
6  sarcina  sum,  fateor,  quam  si  non l  tempore  nostro  2 

depositurus  eras,  non  subeunda  fuit. 
fluctibus  in  mediis  navem,  Palinure,  relinquis  ? 

ne  fuge,  neve  tua  sit  minor  arte  fides. 

numquid  Achilleos  inter  fera  proelia  fidi 

10     deseruit  levitas  Automedontis  equos  ? 

quern  semel  excepit,  numquam  Podalirius  aegro 

promissam  medicae  non  tulit  artis  opem. 
turpius  eicitur,  quam  non  admittitur  hospes  : 

quae  patuit,  dextrae  firma  sit  ara  meae. 
15  nil  nisi  me  solum  primo  tutatus  es  ;  at  nunc 

me  pariter  serva  iudiciumque  tuum, 
si  modo  non  aliqua  est  in  me  nova  culpa,  tuamque 

mutarunt  subito  crimina  nostra  fidem. 
spiritus  hie,  Scythica  quern  non  bene  ducimus  aura, 
20      quod  cupio,  membris  exeat  ante  meis, 
quam  tua  delicto  stringantur  pectora  nostro, 

et  videar  merito  vilior  esse  tibi. 
non  adeo  toti  fatis  urguemur  iniquis, 

ut  mea  sit  longis  mens  quoque  mota  malis. 
25  finge  tamen  motam,  quotiens  Agamemnone  natum 

dixisse  in  Pyladen  improba  verba  putas  ? 
nee  procul  a  vero  est  quin  et 3  pulsarit  amicum  : 

mansit  in  officiis  non  minus  ille  suis. 

1  quamvis  sine        2  nostro]  duro        8  quod  non :  quin  et  £" 

1  Orestes — in  the  course  of  his  madness. 

232 


TRISTIA,  V.  vi.  1-28 


VI.  BE  FAITHFUL 

Do  you  too,  once  the  stay  of  my  fortunes,  my 
refuge,  my  harbour — do  you  too  dismiss  your  love 
for  the  friend  you  took  unto  yourself?  Do  you  so 
speedily  lay  aside  the  loyal  burden  of  duty  ?  I  am 
a  burden,  I  confess,  but  one  which  you  should  not 
have  taken  up  if  you  meant  to  put  it  off  at  a 
time  unfavourable  for  me.  In  the  midst  of  the 
waves,  Palinurus,  do  you  desert  the  ship  ?  Flee  not ; 
let  not  your  faith  be  inferior  to  your  skill.  Did 
Automedon  waver  in  his  faith  and  abandon  in  the 
fierceness  of  the  fight  the  steeds  of  Achilles  ?  When 
once  he  had  accepted  the  charge  never  did  Podalirius 
fail  to  bring  to  the  sick  man  the  promised  aid  of  his 
healing  art.  Tis  baser  to  thrust  forth  than  not  to 
receive  a  guest :  let  the  altar,  once  open,  be  a  steady 
support  for  my  right  hand. 

15  Nothing  but  myself  alone  did  you  at  first  preserve ; 
but  now  preserve  alike  me  and  your  own  judgment, 
if  only  I  have  not  some  new  fault  and  my  wrong- 
doings have  not  suddenly  altered  your  loyalty.  May 
this  breath  which  I  draw  not  easily  in  the  Scythian 
air  leave  my  body — this  is  my  desire — before  your 
heart  is  wounded  by  sin  of  mine  and  I  seem  deservedly 
cheaper  in  your  sight. 

23  Not  so  utterly  overwhelmed  am  I  by  unjust  fate 
that  my  mind  also  has  been  unbalanced  by  my  long 
continued  woes.  Yet  suppose  it  unbalanced — how 
many  times,  think  you,  Agamemnon's  son  l  uttered 
violent  words  against  Pylades  ?  Nor  is  it  far  from 
truth  that  he  even  struck  his  friend  ;  yet  that  friend 
stood  fast  in  his  loyalty.  This  is  the  only  thing  in 

233 


OVID 

hoc  est  cum  miseris  solum  commune  beatis, 
SO     ambobus  tribui  quod  solet  obsequlum  : 
ceditur  et  caecis  et  quos  praetexta  verendos 

virgaque  cum  verbis  imperiosa  facit. 
si  mihi  non  parcis,  fortunae  parcere  debes : 

non  habet  in  nobis  ullius  ira  locum. 
35  eMge  nostrorum  minimum  minimumque  laborum,1 

is  to,  quod  reris,2  grandius  illud  erit. 
quam  multa  madidae  celantur  harundine  fossae, 

florida  quam  multas  Hybla  tuetur  apes, 
quam  multae  gracili  terrena  sub  horrea  ferre 
40     limite  formicae  grana  reperta  solent, 

tarn  me  circumstat s  densorum  turba  malorum. 

crede  mihi,  vero  est  nostra  querella  minor, 
his  qui  contentus  non  est,  in  litus  harenas, 
in  segetem  spicas,  in  mare  fundat  aquas* 
45  intempestivos  igitur  compesce  tumores,4 
vela  nee  in  medio  desere  nostra  mari, 

VII. 

Quam  legis,  ex  ilia  tibi  venit  epistula  terra, 

latus  ubi  aequoreis  additur  Hister  aquis. 
si  tibi  contingit  cum  dulci  vita  salute, 

Candida  fortunae  pars  manet  una  meae, 
5  scilicet,  ut  semper,  quid  agam,  carissime,  quaeriss 

quamvis  hoc  vel  me  scire  tacente  potes. 
sum  miser;  haec  brevisest  nostrorum summa malorum, 

quisquis  et  offenso  Caesare  vivit?  erit. 

1  malorum  *  illo  quo  quereris 

3  circumdat  (circumdant) :  circmnstant  r 

4  timores  corr.  s~ 

1  The  garb  of  the  official,  bordered  with  a  purple  stripe. 

2  The  fasces  (axes  encased  in  the  bundle  of  rods  as  a 


TRiSTIA,  V.  vi.  39— vn.  8 

common  between  the  wretched  and  the  fortunate 
that  regard  is  wont  to  be  rendered  to  both.  We 
make  way  both  for  the  blind  and  for  those  whom  the 
praetexta *  and  the  imperious  rods  2  with  their  cries 
make  reverend.  If  you  have  no  consideration  for 
me,  you  ought  to  show  consideration  for  my  fate  ; 
in  my  case  there  is  no  room  for  anger.  Choose  the 
very  least  of  my  woes  ;  it  will  be  greater  than  what 
you  imagine.  As  many  as  are  the  reeds  which  hide 
the  wet  ditches,  as  many  as  are  the  bees  which 
flowery  Hybla  guards,  as  many  as  are  the  ants  that 
are  wont  to  carry  by  tiny  paths  to  underground 
stores  the  grain  they  find,  so  crowded  is  the  throng 
of  woes  about  me  ;  believe  me,  my  complaint  is 
short  of  the  truth.  Whoever  is  not  content  with 
these,  let  him  pour  sands  upon  the  shore,  grain  ears 
into  the  field,  or  water  into  the  sea.  Wherefore 
restrain  your  unseasonable  anger  and  abandon  not 
my  bark  in  the  midst  of  the  sea. 


VII.  "  AMONG  THE  GOTHS  " 

The  letter  which  you  are  reading  has  come  to  you 
from  that  land  where  the  broad  Hister  adds  his  waters 
to  the  sea.  If  you  are  blessed  with  life  and  the 
sweetness  of  safety,  bright  is  still  one  spot  in  my  life. 
Doubtless  you  are  asking,  as  ever,  dearest  one,  how 
I  fare,  though  this  you  can  know  even  if  I  speak  not. 
I  am  wretched — this  is  the  brief  sum  of  my  woes — 
and  so  will  all  be  who  live  subject  to  Caesar's  wrath. 

symbol  of  authority)  borne  by  the  lictors  who  by  their  cries 
(animadvertite,  "  give  heed  1  ")  demanded  honour  for  the 
magistrates. ' 

£35 


OVID 

turba  Tomitanae  quae  sit  regionis  et  inter 
10      quos  habitem  mores,  discere  cura  tibi  est  ? 

mixta  sit  haec  quamvis  inter  Graecosque  Getasque, 

a  male  pacatis  plus  trahit  ora  Getis. 
Sarmaticae  maior  Geticaeque  frequentia  gentis 

per  medias  in  equis  itque  reditque  vias. 
15  in  quibus  est  nemo,  qui  non  coryton  et  arcum 

telaque  vipereo  lurida  felle  gerat. 
vox  fera,  trux  vultus,  verissima  Martis1  imago, 

non  coma,  non  ulla  barba  resecta  manu, 
dextera  non  segnis  fixo  dare  vulnera  cultro, 
20      quern  iunctum  lateri  barbarus  omnis  habet. 
vivit  in  his  heu  nunc,  lusorum  2  oblitus  amorum, 

hos  videt,  hos  vates  audit,  amice,  tuus  : 
atque  utinam  vivat  non  et 3  moriatur  in  illis, 

absit  ab  invisis  et  tamen  umbra  locis. 
25  carmina  quod  pleno  saltari  nostra  theatro, 

versibus  et  plaudi  scribis,  amice,  meis, 
nil  equidem  feci — tu  scis  hoc  ipse — theatris, 

Musa  nee  in  plausus  ambitiosa  mea  est. 
non  tamen  ingratum  est,  quodcumque  oblivia  nostri 
30      impedit  et  profugi  nomen  in  ora  refert. 
quamvis  interdum,  quae  me  laesisse  recordor, 

carmina  devoveo  Pieridasque  meas, 
cum  bene  devovi,  nequeo  tamen  esse  sine  illis, 

vulneribusque  meis  tela  cruenta  sequor, 
35  quaeque  modo  Euboicis  lacerata  est  fluctibus,  audet 
Graia  Capheream  currere  puppis  aquam.4 

1  mortis  corr.  $~ 

2  nullus  eorum  vel  his  nullus  tenerorum  :  nunc  lusorum 
Ehwald 

236 


TRISTIA,  V.  vii.  9-36 

9  What  the  people  of  the  land  of  Tomis  are  like, 
amid  what  customs  I  live,  are  you  interested  to 
know  ?  Though  upon  this  coast  there  is  a  mixture 
of  Greeks  and  Getae,  it  derives  more  from  the  scarce 
pacified  Getae.  Greater  hordes  of  Sarmatae  and 
Getae  go  and  come  upon  their  horses  along  the  roads. 
Among  them  there  is  not  one  who  does  not  bear 
quiver  and  bow,  and  darts  yellow  with  viper's  gall. 
Harsh  voices,  grim  countenances,  veritable  pictures 
of  Mars,  neither  hair  nor  beard  trimmed  by  any 
hand,  right  hands  not  slow  to  stab  and  wound  with 
the  knife  which  every  barbarian  wears  fastened  to 
his  side.  Among  such  men,  alas  !  your  bard  is 
living,  forgetful  of  the  loves  with  which  he  played  : 
such  men  he  sees,  such  men  he  hears,  my  friend. 
Would  he  might  not  live,  but  die  among  them,  and 
yet  so  that  his  shade  might  leave  this  hated  place  ! 

25  As  for  your  news  that  my  songs  are  being  pre- 
sented with  dancing l  in  a  crowded  theatre,  my  friend, 
and  that  my  verses  are  applauded — I  have  indeed 
composed  nothing  (you  yourself  know  this)  for  the 
theatre  ;  my  Muse  is  not  ambitious  for  hand- 
clappings.  Yet  I  am  not  ungrateful  for  anything 
which  hinders  oblivion  of  me,  which  brings  back  the 
exile's  name  to  men's  lips.  Although  at  times  I 
curse  the  poems  whose  injury  to  me  I  recall,  and  my 
Pierians,  yet  when  I  have  cursed  them  well  I  cannot 
live  without  them  ;  I  still  seek  the  weapons  that  are 
bloody  from  my  wounds,  and  the  Grecian  bark  that 
but  now  was  shattered  by  the  Euboean  waves  dares 
to  skim  the  waters  of  Caphereus.  And  yet  I  do  not 

1  Probably  scenes  adapted  from  the  Hero  ides,  etc.,  to 
the  purposes  of  ballet  and  pantomime. 

8  et  non  corr.  Ueinsiux  *  capharea  .  .  .  aqua 

237 


OVID 

nee  tamen,  ut  lauder,  vigilo  curamque  futuri 

nominis,  utilius  quod  latuisset,  ago. 
detineo  studiis  animum  falloque  dolores, 
40      experior  curis  et  dare  verba  meis. 
quid  potius  faciam  desertis  solus  in  oris, 

quamve  mails  aliam  quaerere  coner l  opem  ? 
sive  locum  specto,  locus  est  inamabilis,  et  quo 

esse  nihil  toto  tristius  orbe  potest, 
45  sive  homines,  vix  sunt  homines  hoc  nomine  digni, 

quamque  lupi,  saevae  plus  feritatis  habent. 
non  metuunt  leges,  sed  cedit  viribus  aequum, 

victaque  pugnaci  iura  sub  ense  iacent. 
pellibus  et  laxis  arcent  mala  frigora  bracis, 
60      oraque  sunt  longis  horrida  tecta  comis. 
in  paucis  remanent  Graecae  vestigia  linguae, 

haec  quoque  iam  Getico  barbara  facta  sono. 
unus  in  hoc  nemo  est  populo,2  qui  forte  Latine 

quaelibet  e  medio  reddere  verba  queat. 
55  ille  ego  Romanus  vates — ignoscite,  Musae  ! — 

Sarmatico  cogor  plurima  more  loqui. 
en  pudet  et  fateor,  iam  desuetudine  longa 

vix  subeunt  ipsi  verba  Latina  mihi. 
nee  dubito  quin  sint  et  in  hoc  non  pauca  libello 
60      barbara  :  non  hominis  culpa,  sed  ista  loci, 
ne  tamen  Ausoniae  perdam  commercia  linguae, 

et  fiat  patrio  vox  mea  muta  sono, 
ipse  loquor  mecum  desuetaque  verba  retracto, 

et  studii  repeto  signa  sinistra  mei. 
65  sic  animum  tempusque  traho,  sic  meque  3  reduco 

a  contemplatu  summoveoque  mali. 
carminibus  quaero  miserarum  oblivia  rerum  : 
praemia  si  studio  consequar  ista,  sat  est. 

1  coner]  cogar  2  nemo  .  .  populo]  populo  vix  est 

3  me  sicque  vel  mecumque  corr.  S" 

238 


TRISTIA,  V.  vn.  37-68 

work  o'  nights  for  praise,  toiling  for  the  future  life  of 
a  name  which  had  better  have  lain  unnoticed.  I 
busy  my  mind  with  studies  beguiling  my  grief,  trying 
to  cheat  my  cares.  What  else  am  I  to  do,  all  alone 
on  this  forsaken  shore,  what  other  resources  for  my 
sorrows  should  I  try  to  seek  ?  If  I  look  upon  the 
country,  'tis  devoid  of  charm,  nothing  in  the  whole 
world  can  be  more  cheerless  ;  if  I  look  upon  the  men, 
they  are  scarce  men  worthy  the  name  ;  they  have 
more  of  cruel  savagery  than  wolves.  They  fear  not 
laws  ;  right  gives  way  to  force,  and  justice  lies 
conquered  beneath  the  aggressive  sword.  With 
skins  and  loose  breeches  they  keep  off  the  evils  of  the 
cold  ;  their  shaggy  faces  are  protected  with  long 
locks.  A  few  retain  traces  of  the  Greek  tongue,  but 
even  this  is  rendered  barbarous  by  a  Getic  twang. 
There  is  not  a  single  man  among  these  people  who 
perchance  might  express  in  Latin  any  common  words 
whatsoever.  I,  the  Roman  bard — pardon,  ye  Muses  ! 
— am  forced  to  utter  most  things  in  Sarmatian 
fashion.  Lo  !  I  am  ashamed  to  confess  it ;  now 
from  long  disuse  Latin  words  with  difficulty  occur 
even  to  me  !  And  I  doubt  not  there  are  even  in 
this  book  not  a  few  barbarisms,  not  the  fault  of  the 
man  but  of  the  place.  Yet  for  fear  of  losing  the  use 
of  the  Ausonian  tongue  and  lest  my  own  voice 
grow  dumb  in  its  native  sound,  I  talk  to  myself, 
dealing  again  with  disused  words  and  seeking  again 
the  ill-omened  currency  of  my  art. 

65  Thus  do  I  drag  out  my  life  and  my  time,  thus  do  I 
withdraw  myself  from  the  contemplation  of  my  woes. 
Through  song  I  seek  oblivion  from  my  wretchedness. 
If  such  be  the  rewards  I  win  by  my  pursuit,  'tis 
enough. 

239 


OVID 


VIII. 

Non  adeo  cecidi,  quamvis  abiectus,  ut  infra 

te  quoque  sim,  inferius  quo  nihil  esse  potest. 
quae  tibi  res  animos  in  me  facit,  improbe  ?  curve 

casibus  insultas,  quos  potes  ipse  pati  ? 
6  nee  mala  te  reddunt  mitem  placidumque  iacenti 

nostra,  quibus  possint  inlacrimare  ferae  ; 
nee  metuis  dubio  Fortunae  stantis  in  orbe 

numen,  et  exosae  verba  superba  deae. 
exigit 1  a  dignis  2  ultrix  Rhamnusia  poenas  : 
10      inposito  calcas  quid  3  mea  fata  pede  ? 

vidi  ego  naufragium  qui  risit 4  in  aequora5  mergi, 

et  "  numquam  "  dixi  "iustior  unda  fuit." 
vilia  qui  quondam  miseris  alimenta  negarat, 

nunc  mendicato  pascitur  ipse  cibo. 
15  passibus  ambiguis  Fortuna  volubilis  errat 
et  manet  in  nullo  certa  tenaxque  loco, 
sed  modo  laeta  venit,6  vultus  modo  sumit  acerbos, 

et  tantum  constans  in  levitate  sua  est. 
nos  quoque  floruimus,  sed  flos  erat  ille  caducus, 
20      flammaque  de  stipula  nostra  brevisque  fuit. 
neve  tamen  tota  capias  fera  gaudia  mente, 

non  est  placandi  spes  mihi  nulla  dei, 
vel  quia  peccavi  citra  scelus,  utque  pudore 

non  caret,  invidia  sic  mea  culpa  caret, 
25  vel  quia  nil  ingens  ad  finem  solis  ab  ortu 

illo,  cui  paret,  mitius  orbis  habet. 
scilicet  ut  non  est  per  vim  superabilis  ulli, 
molle  cor  ad  timidas  sic  habet  ille  preces, 

1  exigis  vel  exiget  2  at  dignes 

8  qui  *  naufragiumqne  viros  et  corr.  Mencken 

6  aequore  °  manet :   venit  He  ins  tug 

240 


TRISTIA,  V.  viii.  1-28 

VIII.  To  A  DETRACTOR 

I  have  not  fallen  so  low,  low  though  I  am,  that  I 
am  beneath  you  too,  for  beneath  you  there  can  be 
nothing.  What  stirs  your  spirit  up  against  me,  shame- 
less man  ?  Why  do  you  mock  at  misfortunes  which 
you  yourself  may  suffer  ?  My  woes  do  not  soften  you 
and  placate  you  towards  one  who  is  prostrate — woes 
over  which  wild  beasts  might  weep,  nor  do  you  fear 
the  power  of  Fortune  standing  on  her  swaying  wheel, 
or  the  haughty  commands  of  the  goddess  who  hates. 
Avenging  Rhamnusia  l  exacts  a  penalty  from  those 
who  deserve  it ;  why  do  you  set  your  foot  and  trample 
upon  my  fate  ?  I  have  seen  one  drowned  in  the 
waves  who  had  laughed  at  shipwreck,  and  I  said, 
"  Never  were  the  waters  more  just."  The  man  who 
once  denied  cheap  food  to  the  wretched  now  eats 
the  bread  of  beggary.  Changeable  Fortune  wanders 
abroad  with  aimless  steps,  abiding  firm  and  per- 
sistent in  no  place  ;  now  she  comes  in  joy,  now  she 
takes  on  a  harsh  mien,  steadfast  only  in  her  own 
fickleness.  I  too  had  my  day,  but  that  day  was  fleet- 
ing ;  my  fire  was  but  of  straw  and  short-lived.  Never- 
theless that  you  may  not  fill  all  your  soul  with  cruel 
joy,  not  wholly  gone  is  my  hope  of  appeasing  the  god, 
because  my  mistake  fell  short  of  crime,  and  though 
my  fault  is  not  free  from  shame,  yet  'tis  free  from 
odium,  or  because  the  wide  world  from  the  rising  sun 
to  its  setting  holds  nothing  more  merciful  than  him 
whom  it  obeys.  Indeed  though  no  force  can  over- 
come him,  yet  he  has  a  tender  heart  for  the  petitions 

1  Nemesis,  one  of  whose  shrines  was  at  Rhamnus  in  Attica. 
She  detested  and  punished  overweening  words  and  acts. 

R  241 


OVID 

exemploque  deum,  quibus  accessurus  et  ipse  est, 
30      cum  poenae  venia  plura  roganda l  dabit.2 
si  numeres  anno  soles  et  nubila  toto, 

invenies  nitidum  saepius  esse  diem, 
ergo  ne  nimium  nostra  laetere  ruina, 

restitui  quondam  me  quoque  posse  puta  : 
35  posse  puta  fieri  lenito  principe  vultus 

ut  videas  media  tristis  in  urbe  meos, 
utque  ego  te  videam  causa  graviore  fugatum, 
haec  sunt  a  primis  proxima  vota  meis. 


IX. 

O  tua  si  sineres  in  nostris  nomina  poni 

carminibus,  positus  quam  mihi  saepe  fores  ? 
te  canerem  solum,  meriti  memor,  inque  libellis 

crevisset  sine  te  pagina  nulla  meis. 
6  quid  tibi  deberem,  tota  sciretur  in  urbe, 

exul  in  amissa  si  tamen  urbe  legor. 
te  praesens  mitem  nosset,  te  serior  aetas, 

scripta  vetustatem  si  modo  nostra  ferunt, 
nee  tibi  cessaret  doctus  bene  dicere  lector  : 
10      hie  te  servato  vate  maneret  honor. 

Caesaris  est  primum  munus,  quod  ducimus  auras  ; 

gratia  post  magnos  est  tibi  habenda  deos. 
ille  dedit  vitam  ;  tu,  quam  dedit  ille,  tueris, 

et  facis  accepto  munere  posse  frui. 
16  cumque  perhorruerit 3  casus  pars  maxima  nostros, 

pars  etiam  credi  pertimuisse  velit, 

1  regenda  *  petam  :  dabit  Faber          8  perhorreret 

242 


TRISTIA,  V.  VIIT.  29— ix.  16 

of  the  timid,  and  after  the  example  of  the  gods 
whom  he  himself  is  destined  to  join,  with  the  remis- 
sion of  my  penalty  he  will  grant  me  further  boons. 
If  you  count  the  suns  and  the  clouds  throughout  a 
year  you  will  find  that  the  day  has  more  often  passed 


brightly. 

33  Co  f  > 


5  So  then  that  you  rejoice  not  overmuch  in  my  ruin, 
consider  that  even  I  may  some  day  be  restored  ; 
consider  that,  if  the  prince  is  appeased,  it  may  come 
to  pass  that  you  may  be  dismayed  to  see  my  face  in 
the  midst  of  the  city,  and  I  may  see  you  exiled  for  a 
weightier  cause.  This,  after  that  first  wish,  is  the 
second  prayer  that  I  put  forth. 


IX.  IN  GRATITUDE 

O  hadst  thou  but  allowed  thy  name  to  be  set  in 
my  verse,  how  oft  wouldst  thou  have  been  named  ! 
Of  thee  alone  would  I  have  sung  in  memory  of  thy 
service  ;  in  my  books  no  page  would  have  been 
completed  without  thee.  My  debt  to  thee  would  be 
known  throughout  the  city — if  I,  an  exile,  am  still 
read  in  the  city  I  have  lost.  Thy  kindness  the 
present,  thy  kindness  later  time  would  know,  if  only 
my  writings  endure  age,  nor  would  the  accomplished 
reader  cease  to  bless  thee  ;  this  honour  would  abide 
with  thee  for  having  preserved  a  poet.  Caesar's 
gift — that  I  draw  breath — comes  first ;  after  the 
mighty  gods  it  is  to  thee  that  I  must  render  thanks. 
He  gave  me  life  ;  thou  dost  preserve  the  life  he  gave, 
lending  me  power  to  enjoy  the  boon  I  have  received. 
When  most  men  shrank  with  dread  at  my  fall  — 
some  even  would  have  it  believed  that  they  had 

243 


OVID 

naufragiumque  meum  tumulo  spectarit l  ab  alto, 

nee  dederit  nanti  per  freta  saeva  manum, 
seminecem  Stygia  revocasti  solus  ab  unda. 
20      hoc  quoque,  quod  memores  possumus  esse,  tuum 

est. 
di  tibi  se  tribuant  cum  Caesare  semper  amicos  : 

non  potuit  votum  plenius  esse  meum. 
haec  meus  argutis,  si  tu  paterere,  libellis 

poneret  in  multa  luce  videnda  labor  ; 
25  nunc  quoque  se,  quamvis  est 2  iussa  quiescere,  quin  te 

nominet  invitum,  vix  mea  Musa  tenet, 
utque  canem  pavidae  nactum  vestigia  cervae 

latrantem  frustra  copula  dura  tenet, 
utque  fores  nondum  reserati  carceris  acer 
30      nunc  pede,  nunc  ipsa  fronte  lacessit  equus, 
sic  mea  lege  data  vincta  atque  inclusa  Thalia  3 

per  titulum  vetiti  nominis  ire  cupit. 
ne  tamen  officio  memoris  laedaris  amici, 

parebo  iussis — parce  timere — tuis. 
35  at  non  parerem,  nisi  me  meminisse  putares. 

hoc  quod  non  prohibet  vox  tua,  gratus  ero. 
dumque — quod  o  breve  sit ! — lumen  vitale  videbo, 
serviet  officio  spiritus  iste  4  tuo. 

X. 

Ut  sumus  in  Ponto,  ter  frigore  constitit  Hister, 
facta  est  Euxini  dura  ter  unda  maris. 

at  mihi  iam  videor  patria  procul  esse  tot  annis, 
Dardana  quot  Graio  Troia  sub  hoste  fuit. 

1  spectaret  corr.  Heinsius 

2  iam  quamvis  est  vel  q.  e.  iam  corr.  Naugerus  (jT  ?) 
8  Thalia]  voluntas  4  ipse 

1  Ten  years. 
244 


TRISTIA,  V.  ix.  17— x.  4 

feared  it — and  gazed  from  a  safe  height  upon  my 
shipwreck,  extending  no  hand  to  him  who  swam  in 
the  savage  seas,  thou  alone  didst  recall  me  half 
lifeless  from  the  Stygian  waters.  My  very  power  to 
remember  this  is  due  to  thee. 

21  May  the  gods  and  Caesar  ever  grant  thee  their 
friendship  !  Prayer  of  mine  could  not  be  fuller  than 
this.  These  things,  if  thou  wouldst  permit,  my  toil 
would  place  in  eloquent  books  in  a  bright  light  to  be 
seen  of  all  :  even  now,  though  my  Muse  lias  been 
constrained  to  silence,  she  scarce  refrains  from 
naming  thee  against  thy  will.  As  a  hound  that  has 
scented  the  trail  of  a  timorous  hind,  baying  all  in 
vain,  is  held  in  check  by  the  unyielding  leash,  as  upon 
the  door  of  the  barrier  as  yet  unlocked  the  eager 
steed  frets  now  with  his  hoof,  now  with  his  very 
brow,  so  my  Thalia,  fettered  and  confined  by  the 
law  thou  hast  imposed,  longs  to  course  o'er  the  glory 
of  thy  forbidden  name.  Yet  that  thou  mayst  not  be 
injured  by  the  homage  of  a  grateful  friend,  I  will 
obey  thy  commands,  fear  not.  But  I  would  not 
obey,  if  thou  didst  not  think  me  grateful ;  this,  which 
thy  word  does  not  forbid,  I  shall  be — grateful  ;  and 
so  long  as  I  behold  the  light  of  life — and  may  the 
time  be  short  ! — that  life  shall  be  a  slave  to  thy 
service. 

X.  THE  EVILS  OF  TOMIS 

Since  I  have  been  by  the  Pontus'  shore,  thrice  has 
Hister  halted  with  the  cold,  thrice  has  the  water  of 
the  Euxine  sea  grown  hard.  Yet  already  I  seem  to 
have  been  absent  from  my  country  as  many  years  l 
as  Dardanian  Troy  was  besieged  by  the  Grecian 

245 


OVID 

6  stare  putes,  adeo  procedunt  tempora  tarde, 

et  peragit  lentis  passibus  annus  iter. 
nee  mihi  solstitium  quicquam  de  noctibus  aufert, 

efficit  angustos  nee  mihi  bruma  dies, 
scilicet  in  nobis  rerum  natura  novata  est, 
10      cumque  meis  curis  omnia  longa  facit. 

an  peragunt  solitos  communia  tempora  motus, 
suntque l  magis  vitae  tempora  dura  meae  ? 
quern  tenet  Euxini  mendax  cognomine  litus,2 

et  Scythici  vere  terra  sinistra  freti. 
15  innumerae  eirca  gentes  fera  bella  minantur, 
quae  sibi  non  rapto  3  vivere  turpe  putant. 
nil  extra  tutum  est :  tumulus  defenditur  ipse 

moenibus  exiguis  ingenioque  loci, 
cum  minime  credas,  ut  aves,4  densissimus  hostis 
20      advolat,  et  praedam  vix  bene  visus  agit. 
saepe  intra  muros  clausis  venientia  portis 

per  medias  legimus  noxia  tela  vias. 
est  igitur  rarus,  rus  qui 5  colere  audeat,  isque 

hac  arat  infelix,  hac  tenet  arma  manu. 
25  sub  galea  pastor  iunctis  pice  cantat  avenis, 
proque  lupo  pavidae  bella  verentur  oves. 
vix  ope  castelli  defendimur  ;   et  tamen  intus 
mixta  facit  Graecis  barbara  turba  metum. 
quippe  simul  nobis  habitat  discrimine  nullo 
30      barbarus  et  tecti  plus  quoque  parte  tenet, 
quos  6  ut  non  timeas,  possis  odisse  videndo 
pellibus  et  longa  pectora  tecta  coma. 

1  stantque  Housman 
2  litus  r]  tellus  vel  tempus  vel  pontus 

*  raptu  4  avis 

6  qui  iam  corr.  Heinsiu* ;  cf.  qui  rus  £~  '  quoru 

246 


TRISTIA,  V.  x.  5-32 

foe.  One  would  think  that  time  stood  still,  so  slowly 
does  it  move,  and  the  year  completes  its  journey  with 
lagging  pace.  For  me  the  solstice  lessens  not  the 
nights,  and  winter  shortens  not  the  days.  In  my 
case  surely  nature  has  been  made  anew  and  she 
makes  all  things  as  tedious  as  my  own  sorrows.  Or 
does  time  in  general  run  its  wonted  course,  and  is  it 
rather  that  the  time  of  my  own  life  is  cruel  ?  For  I 
am  held  by  the  shore  of  the  false-named  Euxine  and 
the  land,  in  truth  ill-omened,  of  the  Scythian  sea.1 
Countless  tribes  round  about  threaten  cruel  war, 
thinking  it  base  to  live  if  not  by  plunder.  Without, 
nothing  is  secure  :  the  hill  itself  is  defended  by 
meagre  walls  and  by  its  skilful  site.  When  least 
expected,  like  birds,  the  foe  swarms  upon  us  and 
when  scarce  well  seen  is  already  driving  off  the  booty. 
Often  within  the  walls  when  the  gates  are  closed, 
we  gather  deadly  missiles  in  the  midst  of  the  streets. 
Rare  then  is  he  who  ventures  to  till  the  fields,  for 
the  wretch  must  plough  with  one  hand,  and  hold 
arms  in  the  other.  The  shepherd  wears  a  helmet 
while  he  plays  upon  his  pitch-cemented  reeds,  and 
instead  of  a  wolf  the  timorous  ewes  dread  war. 
Scarce  with  the  fortress's  aid  are  we  defended  ;  and 
even  within  that  the  barbarous  mob  mingled  with 
the  Greeks  inspires  fear.  For  with  us  dwell  without 
distinction  the  barbarians,  occupying  even  more  than 
half  of  the  dwellings.  Even  should  you  not  fear 
them,  you  may  loathe  the  sight  of  their  chests 
covered  with  hides  and  with  their  long  hair.  Even 


1  Sinistra  probably  has  a  double  meaning  here  :  (1)  **  to 
the  left  "  (as  one  enters  from  the  Bosporus),  (2)  "  ill-omened," 
cf.  notes  on  Tr,  iv.  4.  55  and  iv.  1.  60. 

247 


OVID 

hos  quoque,  qui  geniti  Graia  creduntur  ab  urbe, 

pro  patrio  cultu  Persica  braca  tegit. 
35  exercent  illi  sociae  commercia  linguae  : 
per  gestum  res  est  significanda  mihi. 
barbarus  hie  ego  sum,  qui  non  intellegor  ulli, 

et  rident  stolidi  verba  Latina  Getae  ; 
meque  palam  de  me  tuto  mala  saepe  loquuntur, 
40      forsitan  obiciunt  exiliumque  mihi. 

utque  fit,  in  me  aliquid  ficti,1  dicentibus  illis 

abnuerim  quotiens  adnuerimque,  putant. 

adde  quod  iniustum 2  rigido  ius  dicitur  ense, 

dantur  et  in  medio  vulnera  saepe  foro. 
45  o  duram  Lachesin,  quae  tarn  grave  sidus  habenti 

fila  dedit  vitae  non  breviora  meae  ! 
quod  patriae  vultu  vestroque  caremus,  amici, 

atque  hie  in  Scythicis  gentibus  esse  queror  : 
utraque  poena  gravis.    merui  tamen  urbe  carere, 
50      non  merui  tali  forsitan  esse  loco. 

quid  loquor,  a  !    demens  ?    ipsam  quoque  perdere 

vitam, 
Caesaris  offenso  numine,  dignus  eram. 

XI. 

Quod  te  nescioquis  per  iurgia  dixerit  esse 
exulis  uxorem,  littera  questa  tua  est, 

indolui,  non  tarn  mea  quod  fortuna  male  audit, 

qui  iam  consuevi  fortiter  esse  miser, 
6  quam  quod  cui  minime  vellem,  sum  causa  pudoris, 
teque  reor  nostris  erubuisse  malis. 

1  siquidem  vel  si  quid  :  ficti  Owen  a  et  iustum 

1  The  original  Greek  colony  of  Tomis,  cf.  Tr.  Hi.  9.  3  f. 

2  The  text  is  not  certain.     I  have  adopted  ficti  (Owen). 
248 


TRISTIA,  V.  x.  33— xi.  6 

these  who  are  believed  to  derive  their  descent  from 
the  Greek  city  r  wear  Persian  trousers  instead  of  the 
dress  of  their  fathers.  They  hold  intercourse  in  the 
tongue  they  share  ;  I  must  make  myself  understood 
by  gestures.  Here  it  is  I  that  am  a  barbarian, 
understood  by  nobody ;  the  Getae  laugh  stupidly  at 
Latin  words,  and  in  my  presence  they  often  talk 
maliciously  about  me  in  perfect  security,  perchance 
reproaching  me  with  my  exile.  Quite  naturally  they 
think  me  somehow  pretending 2  whenever  I  have 
nodded  no  or  yes  to  their  speech.  And  besides 
unjustly  the  hard  sword  dispenses  justice,  for  wounds 
are  often  given  in  the  midst  of  the  market-place. 

45  Ah  !  cruel  Lachesis,3  when  my  star  is  so  ill-fated, 
not  to  have  granted  my  life  a  shorter  thread  !  That 
I  am  separated  from  the  sight  of  my  country  and  of 
you,  my  friends,  that  I  must  lament  my  abode  among 
these  Scythian  tribes — each  is  a  hea*vy  penalty.  Yet 
I  deserved  exile  from  the  city  ;  I  did  not  perchance 
deserve  to  be  in  such  a  place.  What  am  I  saying  ? 
Madman  that  I  am  !  Even  my  very  life  I  deserved 
to  lose  by  offending  the  divine  will  of  Caesar. 


XI.  To  HIS  WIFE 

Someone  by  way  of  insult  has  said  that  thou  art 
"  an  exile's  wife  " — of  this  thy  letter  complains.  I 
was  hurt,  not  so  much  that  my  fate  is  spoken  of  with 
malice — for  I  am  now  used  to  bear  my  wretchedness 
with  fortitude — as  that  I  am  the  cause  of  shame  to 
thee  to  whom  I  would  wish  it  least  of  all,  and  to  think 
that  thou  must  have  blushed  for  my  misfortunes. 

8  Lachesis,  one  of  the  Fates,  spun  the  thread  of  life. 

249 


OVID 

perfer  et  obdura  ;  multo  graviora  tulisti, 

eripuit  cum  me  principis  ira  tibi. 
fallitur  iste  tamen,  quo  iudice  nominor  exul : 
10     mollior  est  culpam  poena  secuta  meam. 

maxima  poena  mihi  est  ipsum  offendisse,  priusque 

venisset  mallem  funeris  hora  mihi. 
quassa  tamen  nostra  est,  non  mersa x  nee  obruta  navis, 

utque  caret  portu,  sic  tamen  extat  aquis. 
15  nee  vitam  nee  opes  nee  ius  mihi  civis  ademit, 

qui  merui  vitio  perdere  cuncta  meo. 
sed  quia  peccato  facinus  non  affuit  illi, 
nil  nisi  me  patriis  iussit  abesse  focis. 
utque  aliis,  quorum  numerum  comprendere  non  est, 
20      Caesar eum  numen  sic  mihi  mite  fuit. 
ipse  relegati,  non  exulis  utitur  in  me 

nomine  :  tuta  suo  iudice  causa  mea  est. 
iure  igitur  laudes,  Caesar,  pro  parte  virili 

carmina  nostra  tuas  qualiacumque  canunt : 
25  iure  deos,  ut  adhuc  caeli  tibi  limina  claudant, 
teque  velint  sine  se,  comprecor,  esse  deum. 
optat  idem  populus  ;  sed,  ut  in  mare  flumina  vastum, 

sic  solet  exiguae  currere  rivus  aquae, 
at  tu  fortunam,  cuius  vocor  exul  ab  ore, 
30      nomine  mendaci  parce  gravare  meam  1 

XIL 

Scribis,  ut  oblectem  studio  lacrimabile  tempus, 

ne  pereant  turpi  pectora  nostra  situ, 
difficile  est  quod,  amice,  mones,  quia  carmina  laetum 

sunt  opus,  et  pacem  mentis  habere  volunt. 
1  mersa]  fracta 

1  See  Introd.  p.  xviii. 
250 


TRISTIA,  V.  xi.  7— xii.  4 

Endure,  harden  thy  heart ;  much  heavier  things 
didst  thou  bear  when  the  wrath  of  the  prince  tore 
me  from  thee.  Yet  is  that  judge  mistaken  who  calls 
me  "  exile  "  :  a  milder  penalty  befell  my  fault.  My 
greatest  penalty  consists  in  having  offended  Him  :  I 
would  the  hour  of  death  had  come  upon  me  first  ! 
Yet  my  bark  was  but  shattered,  not  submerged  and 
overwhelmed,  and  though  it  is  deprived  of  a  harbour, 
yet  even  so  it  floats  upon  the  waters.  Neither  life 
nor  property  nor  civil  rights  did  he  take  from  me, 
although  by  my  fault  I  deserved  to  lose  all.  But 
since  no  deed  accompanied  my  sin,  he  ordained 
naught  save  that  I  should  leave  my  native  hearth. 
As  to  others,  whose  number  may  not  be  counted,  so 
to  me  Caesar's  power  was  mild.  He  himself  uses 
in  my  case  the  term  "  relegatus,"  l  not  exile.  My 
cause  is  secure  by  reason  of  him  who  judged  it. 

23  Rightly  then,  Caesar,  do  my  verses,  however 
humble,  sing  to  the  best  of  their  power  thy  praises  : 
rightly  do  I  pray  the  gods  to  keep  their  threshold 
still  closed  to  thee,  and  to  will  that  thou  be  a  god 
apart  from  them.  The  people  offer  the  same  prayer  ; 
but  as  rivers  run  into  the  wide  sea,  so  runs  a  brook 
with  its  meagre  stream. 

29  But  thou,  whose  lips  call  me  "  exile,"  cease  to 
burden  my  fate  with  a  lying  name. 


XI I.  ONCE  A  POET — 

You  write  bidding  me  amuse  my  tearful  hours 
with  my  pursuit,  that  my  wits  be  not  ruined  through 
unseemly  sloth.  My  friend,  your  advice  is  hard, 
for  verse,  being  the  work  of  joy,  would  have  the  mind 

251 


OVID 

5  nostra  per  adversas  agitur  fortuna  procellas, 

sorte  nee  ulla  mea  tristior  esse  potest. 
exigis  ut  Priamus  natorum  funere  ludat,1 

et  Niobe  festos  ducat  ut  orba  chores, 
luctibus  an  studio  videor  debere  teneri, 
10      solus  in  extremes  iussus  abire  Getas  ? 
des  licet  in  valido  pectus  mihi  robore  fultum, 

fama  refert  Anyti  quale  fuisse  reo,2 
fracta  cadet  tantae  sapientia  mole  ruinae  : 

plus  valet  humanis  viribus  ira  dei. 
15  ille  senex,  dictus  sapiens  ab  Apolline,  nullum 

scribere  in  hoc  casu  sustinuisset  opus, 
ut  veniant  patriae,  veniant  oblivia  vestri,3 

omnis  ut  amissi  sensus  abesse  queat, 
at  timor  officio  fungi  vetat  ipse  4  quietum  : 
20      cinctus  ab  innumero  me  tenet  hoste  locus, 
adde  quod  ingenium  longa  rubigine  laesum 

torpet  et  est  multo,  quam  fuit  ante,  minus, 
fertilis,  assiduo  si  non  renovatur5  aratro, 

nil  nisi  cum  spinis  gramen  habebit  ager. 
25  tempore  qui  longo  steterit,  male  curret 6  et  inter 

carceribus  missos  ultimus  ibit  equus. 
vertitur  in  teneram  cariem  rimisque  dehiscit, 

siqua  diu  solitis  cumba  vacavit 7  aquis. 
me  quoque  despera,8  fuerim  cum  parvus  et  ante, 
30      illi,  qui  fueram,  posse  redire  parem. 

contudit  ingenium  patientia  longa  malorum, 
et  pars  antiqui  nulla  vigoris  adest. 

1  plaudat  2  rei  vel  sen  is  8  nostri 

4  esse  :  ipse  r  5  renovetur  vel  removetur 

8  currit  7  vacabit  corr.  r  8  desperc 

1  Socrates.     The  Delphian  Oracle  declared  that  nobo 
was  wiser  than  Socrates. 

252 


TRISTIA,  V.  xn.  5-32 

at  peace.  My  fate  is  driven  on  by  hostile  blasts  ; 
nothing  could  be  more  gloomy.  You  are  requiring 
Priam  to  disport  himself  at  the  death  of  his  sons, 
Niobe  in  her  bereavement  to  lead  a  gay  dance.  Is 
it  mourning  or  poetry,  think  you,  that  should  occupy 
him  who  was  bidden  to  go  alone  to  the  land  of  the 
distant  Getae  ?  You  may  give  me  a  heart  sup- 
ported by  the  mighty  power  which  they  say  he l 
possessed  who  was  accused  by  Anytus,  but  wisdom 
will  fall  with  a  crash  under  the  mass  of  such  a  mighty 
ruin,  for  the  wrath  of  a  god  overpowers  human 
strength.  That  famous  old  man,  called  a  sage  by 
Apollo,  would  have  had  no  power  in  this  misfortune 
to  write  a  single  work.  Though  forgetfulness  of 
country  should  come,  though  forgetfulness  of  you 
should  come,  though  all  realization  of  what  I  have 
lost  could  leave  me,  yet  very  fear  forbids  the  peaceful 
performance  of  the  task,  for  I  dwell  in  a  place  girt 
about  by  countless  foes.  And  besides  my  talent, 
injured  by  long  neglect,  is  dull,  much  inferior  to 
what  it  was  before.  A  fertile  field,  if  it  be  not 
renewed  by  constant  ploughing,  will  produce  nothing 
but  grass  and  thorns.  The  horse  which  has  stood  for 
a  long  time  will  run  but  poorly  and  will  be  last  among 
those  released  from  the  barrier.2  Any  skiff  falls 
into  frail  rottenness,  yawning  with  cracks,  if  it  has 
been  long  separated  from  its  accustomed  waters. 
For  me  also  feel  despair  that,  little  as  I  was  even 
before,  I  can  become  once  more  the  man  I  was.  My 
talent  has  been  crushed  by  my  long  endurance  of 
woes  :  no  part  of  my  former  vigour  remains.  Yet 

2  Before  the  start  of  a  race  the  horses  were  held  within 
barriers. 

253 


OVID 

siqua l  tamen  nobis,  ut  nunc  quoque,  sumpta  tabell 

est, 

inque  suos  volui  cogere  verba  pedes, 
35  carmina  nulla  mihi  sunt  scripta,2  aut  qualia  cernis, 

digna  sui  domini  tempore,  digna  loco, 
denique  non  parvas  animo  dat  gloria  vires, 

et  fecunda  facit  pectora  laudis  amor, 
nominis  et  famae  quondam  fulgore  trahebar, 
40      dum  tulit  antemnas  aura  secunda  meas. 

non  adeo  est  bene  nunc  ut  sit  mihi  gloria  curae  : 

si  liceat,  nulli  cognitus  esse  velim. 
an  quia  cesserunt  primo  bene  carmina,  suades 

scribere,  successus  ut  sequar  ipse  meos  ? 
45  pace,  novem,  vestra  liceat  dixisse,  sorores  : 

vos  estis  nostrae  maxima  causa  fugae. 
utque  dedit  iustas  tauri  fabricator  aeni, 

sic  ego  do  poenas  artibus  ipse  meis. 
nil  mihi  debebat  cum  versibus  amplius  esse, 
60      cum  fugerem  merito  naufragus  omne  fretum. 
at,  puto,  si  demens  studium  fatale  retemptem, 

hie  mihi  praebebit  carminis  arma  locus, 
non  liber  hie  ullus,  non  qui  mihi  commodet  aurem, 

verbaque  significant  quid  mea,  norit,  adest. 
55  omnia  barbariae  loca  sunt  vocisque  ferinae, 

omniaque  hostilis  3  plena  timore  soni. 
ipse  mihi  videor  iam  dedidicisse  Latine  : 
nam  didici  Getice  Sarmaticeque  loqui. 
nee  tamen,  ut  verum  fatear  tibi,  nostra  teneri 
GO      a  componendo  carmine  Musa  potest. 

scribimus  et  scriptos  absumimus  igne  libellos  : 

exitus  est  studii  parva  favilla  mei. 
nee  possum  et  cupio  non  nullos  ducere  versus  : 
ponitur  idcirco  noster  in  igne  labor, 

1  siqua  Bentley]  saepe 
254 


TRISTIA,  V.  xii.  33-64 

if,  as  now,  I  have  taken  up  some  tablet  and  sought 
to  force  words  into  proper  feet,  no  verses  are  written 
by  me  or  only  such  as  you  see — worthy  of  their 
master's  state,  worthy  of  his  place.  In  short  desire 
for  fame  lends  no  small  strength  to  the  mind,  love  of 
praise  makes  the  heart  fertile.  Once  I  was  drawn 
on  by  the  glamour  of  name  and  fame  while  the 
favouring  breeze  bore  on  my  yards.  'Tis  not  so 
well  with  me  now  that  I  care  for  renown  ;  if  'twere 
possible  I  would  have  none  know  of  me. 

43  Or  is  it  because  at  first  my  verse  went  well  that 
you  advise  me  to  write — to  follow  up  my  success  ? 
By  your  leave,  sisters  nine,  would  I  say  it :  you  are 
the  chief  cause  of  my  exile.  As  the  maker  A  of  the 
bronze  bull  paid  the  just  penalty,  so  I  am  paying  the 
penalty  for  my  art.  I  ought  to  have  nothing  more 
to  do  with  verse,  for  once  shipwrecked  I  rightly  shun 
every  sea.  But,  forsooth,  if  I  should  be  mad  enough 
to  try  once  more  the  fatal  pursuit,  will  this  place 
afford  me  the  equipment  for  song  !  There  is  not  a 
book  here,  not  a  man  to  lend  ear  to  me,  to  know 
what  my  words  mean.  All  places  are  filled  with 
barbarism  and  cries  of  wild  animals,  all  are  filled 
with  the  fear  of  a  hostile  sound.  I  myself,  I  think, 
have  already  unlearned  my  Latin,  for  I  have  learned 
how  to  speak  Getic  and  Sarmatian. 

69  And  yet,  to  confess  the  truth  to  you,  my  Muse 
cannot  be  restrained  from  composing  verses.  I  write 
poems  which  once  written  I  consume  in  the  fire ;  a 
few  ashes  are  the  result  of  my  toil.  I  have  not  the 
power  and  yet  I  long  to  compose  some  verse  ;  hence 
l  Perillus. 

*  carmina  sunt  niihi  scripta  aut  nulla  vel  carmina  scripta 
mihi  sunt  nulla  *  hostilis  Merkel]  possint  vel  possunt 

255 


OVID 

65  nee  nisi  pars  casu  flammis  erepta  dolove 

ad  vos  ingenii  pervenit  ulla  mei. 
sic  utinam,  quae  nil  metuentem  tale  magistrum 
perdidit,  in  cineres  Ars  mea  versa  foret ! 

XIII. 

Hanc  tuus  e  Getico  mittit  tibi  Naso  salutem, 
mittere  si  quisquam,  quo  caret  ipse,  potest. 
aeger  enim  traxi  contagia  corpore  mentis, 
fibera  tormento  pars  mihi  ne  qua  vacet, 
5  perque  dies  multos  lateris  cruciatibus  uror  ; 
sic  me  non  medico 1  frigore  laesit  hiems. 
si  tamen  ipse  vales,  aliqua  nos  parte  valemus  : 

quippe  mea  est  umeris  fulta  ruina  tuis. 
quid,2  mihi  cum  dederis  ingentia  pignora,  cumque 
10      per  numeros  omnes  hoc  tueare  caput, 
quod  tua  me  raro  solatur  epistula,  peccas, 

remque  piam  praestas,  sed  3  mihi  verba  negas  ? 
hoc,  precor,  emenda  !   quod  si  correxeris  unum, 

nullus  in  egregio  corpore  naevus  erit. 
15  pluribus  accusem,  fieri  nisi  possit,  ut  ad  me 

littera  non  veniat,  niissa  sit  ilia  tamen. 
di  faciant,  ut  sit  temeraria  nostra  querella, 

teque  putem  falso  non  memiriisse  mei. 
quod  precor,  esse  liquet  :  neque  enim  mutabile  robur 
20      credere  me  fas  est  pectoris  esse  tui. 
cana  prius  gelido  desint  absinthia  Ponto, 
et  careat  dulci  Trinacris  Hybla  thymo, 
inmemorem  quam  te  quisquam  convincat  amici. 
non  ita  sunt  fati  stamina  nigra  mei. 

1  sed  quod  non  modico  (in  inmodico)  corr.  Ellis. 

2  qui 3  si ;  sed  s" 

1  The  Am  amatoria. 

2  The  under  surface  of  the  leaves  is  white. 
256 


TRISTIA,  V.  xii.  65— xni.  24 

my  labour  is  placed  in  the  fire,  and  nothing  but  a  bit 
of  my  effort,  saved  by  chance  or  by  craft,  reaches 
you.  In  such  wise  I  would  that  my  "  Art,"  l  which 
ruined  a  master  who  feared  nothing  of  the  kind,  had 
been  turned  to  ashes  ! 

XIII.  SICK  AND  REPROACHFUL 

This  "  Health  "  thy  Naso  sends  thee  from  the 
Getic  land,  if  anyone  can  send  what  he  himself  has 
not.  For  being  sick  at  heart  I  drew  the  contagion 
into  my  body — that  no  part  of  me  may  be  free  from 
torture  ! — and  for  many  days  I  have  been  tortured 
by  an  aching  side  ;  thus  has  the  excessive  cold  of 
the  winter  injured  me.  Yet  if  thou  art  well,  I  am 
well  in  some  degree,  for  my  ruin  was  supported  by 
thy  shoulders.  Why,  when  thou  hast  given  me 
mighty  proofs  of  love,  when  thou  dost  in  every  fashion 
guard  this  life  of  mine,  dost  thou  err  in  rarely  com- 
forting me  with  a  letter,  supplying  me  the  fact  of 
loyalty  but  denying  rne  the  words  ?  Correct  this,  I 
beg  of  thee ;  if  thou  amend  one  thing,  there  will  be 
no  blemish  on  the  perfect  body. 

16  I  should  bring  more  accusations  against  thee  were 
it  not  possible  that  though  no  letter  reaches  me,  yet 
that  one  has  been  sent.  God  grant  that  my  com- 
plaint be  groundless — that  I  am  wrong  in  believing 
thou  hast  forgotten  me.  What  I  pray  for  is  true, 
'tis  clear ;  for  it  is  not  right  for  me  to  believe  the 
steadfast  strength  of  thy  heart  can  change.  Sooner 
would  the  white2  wormwood  fail  the  icy  Pontus, 
sooner  would  Trinacrian  Hybla  lack  its  sweet  thyme 
than  anyone  could  convict  thee  of  forgetting  a  friend. 
Not  so  black  as  that  are  the  threads  of  my  fate.  But 
s  257 


OVID 

25  tu  tamen,  ut  possis  falsae  quoque  pellere  culpae 

crimina,  quod  non  es,  ne  videare,  cave, 
utque  solebamus  consumere  longa  loquendo 

tempora,  sermoiii l  deficiente  die, 
sic  ferat  ac  referat  tacitas  nunc  littera  voces, 
30      et  peragant  linguae  charta  manusque  vices, 
quod  fore  ne  nimium  videar  diffidere,  sitque 

versibus  hoc  paucis  admonuisse  satis, 
accipe  quo  semper  finitur  epistula  verbo — 
atque  meis  distent  ut  tua  fata  ! — "  vale." 


XIV. 

Quanta  tibi  dederim  nostris  monumenta  libellis, 

o  mihi  me  coniunx  carior,  ipsa  vides. 
detrahat  auctori  multum  fortuna  licebit, 

tu  tamen  ingenio  clara  ferere  meo  ; 
6  durnque  legar,  mecum  pariter  tua  fama  legetur, 

nee  potes  in  maestos  omnis  abire  rogos  ; 
cumque  viri  casu  possis  miseranda  videri, 

invenies  aliquas,  quae,  quod  es,  esse  velint, 
quae  te,  nostrorum  cum  sis  in  parte  malorum, 
10      felicem  dicant  invideantque  tibi. 

non  ego  divitias  dando  tibi  plura  dedissem  : 

nil  feret  ad  Manes  divitis  umbra  suos. 
perpetui  fructum  donavi  nominis  idque, 

quo  dare  nil  potui  munere  maius,  habes. 
15  adde  quod,  ut2  rerum  sola  es  tutela  mearum, 

ad  te  non  parvi  venit  honoris  onus, 
quod  numquam  vox  est  de  te  mea  muta  tuique 

indiciis  debes  esse  superba  viri. 

1  sermone  2  et :  ut  lleinsius 

258 


TRISTIA,  V.  xin.  25— xiv.  18 

that  thou  mayst  repel  the  charge  (false  though  it  is) 
of  fault,  beware  of  seeming  what  thou  art  not.  As 
we  were  wont  to  pass  long  hours  in  converse,  till  day- 
light failed  our  talk,  so  now  should  our  letters  bring 
and  return  our  voiceless  words,  and  the  paper  and 
our  hands  should  perform  the  office  of  our  tongues. 
Lest  I  seem  to  distrust  overmuch  that  this  shall  be 
so  (and  may  a  few  lines  suffice  to  have  given  this 
reminder),  receive  that  word  with  which  every  letter 
is  ended — that  thy  fate  may  differ  from  mine  ! — the 
word  "  farewell  "  ! 1 

XIV.  To  HIS  WIFE 

What  a  memorial  I  have  reared  to  thee  in  my 
books,  O  my  wife,  dearer  to  me  than  myself,  thou 
seest.  Though  fate  may  take  much  from  their 
author,  thou  at  least  shalt  be  made  illustrious  by  my 
powers.  As  long  as  men  read  me  thy  fame  shall  be 
read  along  with  me  ;  nor  canst  thou  utterly  pass 
away  into  the  sad  pyre.  Although  thy  husband's 
fate*  may  cause  thee  to  seem  worthy  of  pity,  thou 
wilt  find  some  who  wish  to  be  what  thou  art,  who  in 
that  thou  dost  share  my  woes,  will  call  thee  fortunate 
and  envy  thee.  Not  by  giving  thee  riches  could  I 
have  given  thee  more  :  nothing  will  the  rich  man's 
shade  carry  to  its  ghostly  realm.  I  gave  thee  enjoy- 
ment of  an  immortal  name,  and  thou  hast  a  boon  than 
which  I  could  give  none  greater.  And  besides,  as  thou 
art  the  sole  guardian  of  my  fortunes,  an  honour  of  no 
small  moment  has  come  to  thee,  for  my  voice  is  never 
silent  about  thee  and  thou  shouldst  be  proud  of  thy 

1  Vale  has  a  double  meaning:  (H  goodbye,  (2)  "  fare  you 
well "  (literally).  (2)  explains  the  clause  atque  .  .  ,  fata 

259 


OVID 

quae  ne  quis  possit  temeraria  dicere,  persta, 
20      et  pariter  serva  meque  piauique  iidem. 

nam  tua,  dum  stetimus,  turpi  sine  crimine  mansit, 

et  tan  turn  l  probitas  inreprehensa  fuit. 
area  de  2  nostra  nunc  est  tibi  facta  ruina  ; 

conspicuum  virtus  hie  tua  ponat  opus. 
25  esse  bonam  facile  est,  ubi,  quod  vetet  esse,  remotum 

est, 

et  nihil  officio  nupta  quod  obstet  habet. 
cum  deus  intonuit,  non  se  subducere  nimbo, 

id  demum  est  pietas,  id  socialis  amor, 
rara  quidem  virtus,  quam  nori  Fortuna  gubernet, 
30      quae  maneat  stabili,  cum  fugit  ilia,  pcde. 
siqua  tamen  pretium  sibi  virtus  3  ipsa  petitum, 

inque  parum  laetis  ardua  rebus  adest, 
ut  tempus  numeres,  per  saecula  nulla  tacetur, 

et  loca  mirantur  qua  patet  orbis  iter. 
35  aspicis  ut  longo  teneat  laudabilis  aevo 

noinen  inextinctum  Penelopea  fides  ? 
cernis  ut  Admeti  cantetur  et  Hectoris  uxor 

ausaque  in  accensos  Iphias  ire  rogos  ? 
ut  vivat  fama  coniunx  Phylacei'a,  cuius 
40      Iliacam  celeri  vir  pede  pressit  humum  ? 

morte  nihil  opus  est  pro  me,  sed  amore  fideque  : 

non  ex  difficili  fama  petenda  tibi  est. 
nee  te  credideris,  quia  non  facis,  ista  moneri  : 

vela  damus,  quamvis  remige  puppis  eat, 
45  qui  monet  ut  facias,  quod  iam  facis,  ille  monendo 
laudat  et  hortatu  comprobat  acta  suo. 

1  tanta  2  par  (vd  per)  eadcm  :   area  de  Withof 

3  nicrces  :  virtus  Ehwald 

260 


TRISTIA,  V.  xiv.  19-46 

husband's  testimony.  That  none  may  think  it  rashly 
given,  stand  thou  firm  ;  preserve  me  and  thy  loyal 
devotion  alike.  For  thy  goodness,  whilst  I  stood 
secure,  remained  free  from  accusation's  taint,  at  best 
uncriticized,1  but  now  by  my  fall  a  space  has  been 
cleared  for  thee  ;  here  let  thy  virtue  build  a  struc- 
ture clear  to  see.  Tis  easy  to  be  good  when  that 
which  forbids  it  has  been  removed  and  a  wife  has 
nothing  opposing  her  duty.  When  the  god  thunders, 
not  to  avoid  the  cloud — that  is  loyalty  indeed,  that 
is  wedded  love.  Rare  indeed  is  the  virtue  not 
piloted  by  Fortune,  which  remains  on  steady  feet 
when  Fortune  flees.  Yet  whenever  virtue  is  herself 
her  own  coveted  reward  and  remains  upright  in 
adversity,  though  you  count  all  time,  she  is  passed 
over  in  silence  by  no  age,  she  is  given  homage  wher- 
ever the  world's  highway  extends.  Seest  thou  how 
Penelope's  faith  is  praised  in  the  long  reaches  of  time 
and  how  her  name  never  dies  ?  How  Admetus'  wife  2 
and  Hector's  3  are  sung,  and  the  daughter  of  Iphis,4 
who  dared  to  mount  the  lighted  pyre  ?  How  the 
wife  of  the  hero  5  of  Phylacos  lives,  whose  husband 
touched  with  his  swift  foot  the  soil  of  Ilium  ?  I  need 
not  thy  death,  but  thy  love,  thy  faith  ;  not  by  hard 
ways  hast  thou  to  seek  for  fame.  Nor  believe  that 
I  am  reminding  thee  because  thou  art  not  acting  :  I 
am  but  giving  sails  to  a  bark  that  is  already  using  the 
oars.  He  who  reminds  thee  to  do  what  thou  art 
already  doing,  by  so  reminding  praises  thy  acts  and 
by  his  very  exhortation  approves  them. 

1  i.e.  it  was  only  (tantum)  nothing  evil  that  was  said  of 
you  ;  now  you  have  a  chance  to  win  a  positive  fame. 

2  Alcestis.  8  Andromache.  4  Evadne. 
5  Protesilaus,  whose  wife  was  Laodamia. 

261 


EPISTULAE    EX   PONTO 


EX   PONTO   LIBER   PRIMUS 
I. 

Naso  Tomitanae  iam  non  novus  incola  terrae 

hoc  tibi  de  Getico  litore  mittit  opus, 
si  vacat,  hospitio  peregrinos,  Brute,  libellos 

excipe,  dumque  aliquo,  quolibet  abde  loco.1 
5  publica  non  audent  intra  2  monimenta  venire, 

ne  suus  hoc  illis  clauserit  auctor  iter. 
a !  quotiens  dixi  "  certe  nil  turpe  docetis  : 

ite,  patet  castis  versibus  ille  locus  !  " 
non  tamen  accedunt,  sed,  ut  aspicis  ipse,  latere 
10     sub  Lare  privato  tutius  esse  putant. 
quaeris  ubi  hos  possis  nullo  componere  laeso  ? 

qua  steterant  Artes,  pars  vacat  ilia  tibi. 
quid  3  veniant,  novitate  rogcs  fortasse  sub  ipsa. 

accipe,  quodcumque  est,  dummodo  non  sit  amor. 
15  invenies,  quamvis  non  est  miserabilis  index, 

non  minus  hoc  illo  triste,  quod  ante  dedi. 
rebus  idem,  titulo  differt ;  et  epistula  cui  sit 

non  occultato  nomine  missa  docet. 
nee  vos  hoc  vultis,  sed  nee  prohibere  potestis, 
20      Musaque  ad  invitos  officiosa  venit. 

1  loco]  modo  2  inter  3  qui 

1  i.e.  a  public  library. 

2  Most  of  the  Tristia  are  addressed  to  individuals  who  are 
not  named. 


EX   PONTO— BOOK   I 

I.  To  BRUTUS 

NASO,  no  recent  dweller  now  in  the  land  of  Tomis, 
sends  to  you  this  work  from  the  Getic  shore.  If  you 
have  leisure,  entertain  and  harbour,  Brutus,  these 
poems  from  a  foreign  land  ;  hide  them  away  where 
you  will,  yet  somewhere.  They  venture  not  to  enter 
a  public  memorial 1  for  fear  their  master  has  closed 
for  them  this  way.  Ah,  how  often  have  I  said, 
"  Surely  you  give  no  base  instruction  !  Go  !  Clean 
verse  may  freely  enter  that  place  !  "  Yet  these 
verses  go  not  thither,  but  as  you  see  they  deem  it 
safer  to  lie  in  the  seclusion  of  a  private  household. 
Do  you  ask  where  you  can  lay  them  without  injuring 
anybody  ?  Where  once  stood  my  "  Art  "  there  you 
have  a  vacant  space. 

13  What  they  come  for,  perchance  you  may  ask 
while  their  novelty  is  still  fresh.  Take  them,  what- 
ever it  is,  so  only  it  be  not  love.  You  will  find,  though 
the  title  implies  no  sorrow,  that  this  work  is  not  less 
sad  than  that  which  I  sent  before — in  theme  the 
same,  in  title  different,  and  each  epistle  reveals  the 
recipient  without  concealing  his  name.2  You  are  all 
averse  to  this  but  cannot  prevent  it ;  my  Muse  comes 
to  you  with  homage  even  against  your  will.  What- 

265 


OVID 

quicquid  id  est,  adiunge  meis.    nihil  impedit  ortos 

exule  servatis  legibus  urbe  frui. 
quod  metuas  non  est.     Antoni  scripta  leguntur, 

doctus  et  in  promptu  scrinia l  Brutus  habet. 
25  nee  me  nominibus  furiosus  confero  tantis  : 

saeva  deos  contra  non  tamen  arma  tuli. 
denique  Caesareo,  quod  non  desiderat  ipse, 

non  caret  e  nostris  ullus  honore  liber, 
si  dubitas  de  me,  laudes  admitte  deorum, 
30      et  carmen  dempto  nomine  sume  meum. 
adiuvat  in  bello  pacatae  ramus  olivae  : 

proderit  auctorem  pacis  habere  nihil  ? 
cum  foret  Aeneae  cervix  subiecta  parenti, 

dicitur  ipsa  viro  flamma  dedisse  viam  : 
35  fert  liber  Aeneaden,  et  non  iter  omne  patebit  ? 

at  patriae  pater  hie,  ipsius  ille  fuit. 
ecquis  ita  est  audax,  ut  limine  cogat  abire 

iactantem  Pharia  tinnula  sistra  manu  ? 
ante  deum  Matrem  cornu  tibicen  adunco 
40      cum  canit,  exiguae  quis  stipis  aera  negat  ? 
scimus  ab  imperio  fieri  nil  tale  Dianae  : 

unde  tamen  vivat,  vaticinator  habet. 
ipsa  movent  animos  superorum  numina  nostros, 

turpe  nee  est  tali  credulitate  capi. 
45  en  ego  pro  sistro  Phrygiique  foramine  buxi 

gentis  luleae  nomina  sancta  fero. 

1  scrinia]  carmina 

1  M.  Junius  Brutus,  the  conspirator. 

2  Augustus  prided  himself  on  restoring  and  maintaining 
peace.  8  Anchises. 

4  i.e.  Augustus,  who  is  borne  by  Ovid's  book,  is  as  father 
of  his  country  much  more  important  than  Anchises,  who 
was  father  only  of  the  man  who  bore  him. 

8  The  sistrum  was  an  instrument  used  in  the  worship  of 
266 


EX  PONTO,  I.  i.  21-46 

ever  it  be  then,  add  it  to  my  writings.  Nothing 
hinders  an  exile's  offspring,  if  they  observe  the  law, 
from  enjoying  the  city.  There  is  naught  for  you 
to  fear  ;  Antony's  writings  are  still  read,  and  the 
accomplished  Brutus  l  finds  book-cases  in  readiness 
for  him.  I  am  not  so  mad  as  to  compare  myself 
with  such  great  names,  yet  I  have  borne  no  hostile 
arms  against  the  gods.  In  fine  Caesar,  though  he 
needs  it  not,  lacks  not  homage  in  any  book  of  mine. 
If  about  me  you  doubt,  admit  a  eulogy  of  the  gods  : 
receive  my  song  after  removing  the  name.  In  war 
the  peaceful  olive  branch  is  useful ;  shall  it  profit  me 
nothing  that  my  song  contains  the  author  of  peace  2  ? 
When  Aeneas  bore  a  father3  upon  his  shoulders, 
the  very  flames,  they  say,  made  a  path  for  the  hero. 
If  a  book  bears  upon  its  pages  the  descendant  of 
Aeneas,  shall  not  every  path  be  open  to  it  ?  Yet 
the  one  is  father  of  his  country,  the  other  only  of 
his  bearer ! 4 

37  Is  there  any  so  brazen  as  to  force  from  his  door 
one  who  shakes  the  ringing  sistra  5  of  Pharos  in  his 
hand  ?  When  before  the  mother  6  of  the  gods  the 
piper  plays  upon  his  curved  horn,  who  denies  him  a 
few  coppers  ?  No  such  thing  7  results,  we  know,  by 
Diana's  command,  yet  the  prophet  has  the  where- 
withal to  live.  The  very  power  of  the  celestials  stirs 
our  hearts  and  there  is  nothing  disgraceful  in  yielding 
to  such  credulity.  Lo,  I,  in  place  of  sistrum  or 
hollow  shaft  of  Phrygian  boxwood,  come  bearing  the 

Isis  which  made  a  sharp  metallic  click.  Pharos,  an  island 
near  Alexandria,  represents  this  Egyptian  cult. 

8  Cybele. 

7  i.e.  as  that  alms  should  be  given  to  prophets  (perhaps 
at  Diana's  temple  at  Aricia). 

267 


OVID 

vaticinor  moneoque.    locum  date  sacra  ferenti ! 

non  mihi,  sed  magno  poscitur  ille  deo. 
nee  quia  vel  merui  vel  sensi  principis  iram, 
50      a  nobis  ipsum  l  nolle  putate  coli. 

vidi  ego  linigerae  2  numen  violasse  fatentem 

Isidis  Isiacos  ante  sedere  focos. 
alter,  ob  huic  similem  privatus  lumine  culpam, 

clamabat  media  se  meruisse  via. 
55  talia  caelestes  fieri  praeconia  gaudent, 

ut  sua  quid  valeant  numina  teste  probent. 
saepe  levant  poenas  ereptaque  lumina  reddunt, 

cum  bene  peccati  paenituisse  vident. 
paenitet,  o  !  si  quid  rniserorum  creditur  ulli, 
60      paenitet,  et  facto  torqueor  ipse  meo. 

cumque  sit  exilium,  magis  est  mihi  culpa  dolori  ; 

estque  pati  poenam,  quam  meruisse,  minus, 
ut  mihi  di  faveant,  quibus  est  manifestior  ipse, 

poena  potest  demi,  culpa  perennis  erit. 
65  mors  faciet  certe,  ne  sim,  cum  venerit,  exul  : 

ut 3  non  peccarim  mors  quoque  non  faciet. 
non  igitur  mirum,  si  mens  mea  tabida  facta 

de  nive  manantis  more  liquescit  aquae, 
estur  ut  occulta  vitiata  teredine  navis, 
70      aequorei  scopulos  ut  cavat  unda  salis, 
roditur  ut  scabra  positum  robigine  ferrum 

conditus  ut  tineae  carpitur  ore  liber, 
sic  mea  perpetuos  curarum  pectora  morsus, 

fine  quibus  nullo  conficiantur,  habent. 

1  ipsum]  ilium  2  lanigerae 

8  nee  vel  ne  :  ut  Ca  Owen 

1  The  form  is  a  complimentary  reference  to  the  descent 
of  the  Julii  from  lulus,  son  of  Aeneas,  cf.  Ex  P.  ii.  5.  49. 

2  A  mollusk  which  weakens  timber  by  boring  holes  in  it. 
268 


EX  PONTO,  I.  i.  47-74 

holy  names  of  the  lulean1  race.  I  am  a  prophet,  a 
monitor  !  Give  place  to  one  who  bears  holy  objects  ! 
Not  by  me,  but  by  a  mighty  god  that  place  is  claimed. 
Because  I  have  earned  or  felt  the  Prince's  wrath,  do 
not  suppose  that  I  would  not  worship  the  Prince  him- 
self. I  have  seen  one  who  confessed  to  have  out- 
raged the  deity  of  linen-wearing  Isis  sitting  before 
Isis's  shrine.  Another  bereft  of  sight  for  a  like  cause 
was  crying  out  in  the  midst  of  the  street  that  he  had 
deserved  it.  The  gods  rejoice  in  such  heraldings  that 
witnesses  may  attest  their  power.  Often  do  they 
mitigate  penalties  and  restore  the  sight  they  have 
taken  away  when  they  behold  sincere  repentance  for 
sin.  I  too  repent  !  O,  if  any  wretched  man  is 
believed  in  anything,  I  too  repent  !  I  feel  the 
torture  of  my  own  deed  !  Though  exile  is  anguish, 
greater  anguish  is  my  fault  and  it  is  a  smaller  thing 
to  suffer  the  punishment  than  to  have  deserved  it. 
What  though  the  gods  and  he  who  is  more  con- 
spicuous than  the  gods  should  favour  me,  my  punish- 
ment can  be  removed,  my  fault  will  remain  forever. 
Death  at  least  by  his  coming  will  put  an  end  to  my 
exile,  my  sin  even  death  will  not  remove. 

67  'Tis  then  no  marvel  if  my  heart  has  softened  and 
melts  as  water  runs  from  snow.  It  is  gnawed  as  a 
ship  is  injured  by  the  hidden  borer,2  as  the  briny  sea 
water  hollows  out  the  crags,  as  stored  iron  is  eaten 
by  corroding  rust,  as  the  book  when  laid  away  is 
nibbled  by  the  worm's  teeth,  so  my  heart  feels  the 
constant  gnawing  of  sorrow  which  will  finish  its  work 

269 


OVID 

75  nee  prius  hi  mentem  stimuli  quam  vita  relinquet, 

quique  dolet,  citius  quam  dolor  ipse,  cadet, 
hoc  mihi  si  superi,  quorum  sumus  omnia,  credent,1 

forsitan  exigua  dignus  habebor  ope, 
inque  locum  Soythico  vacuum  mu tabor  ab  arcu. 
80      plus  isto,  duri,  si  precer,  oris  ero. 

II. 

Maxime,  qui  tanti  mensuram  nominis  imples, 

et  geminas  animi  nobilitate  genus, 
qui  nasci  ut  posses,  quamvis  cecidere  trecenti, 

non  omnes  Fabios  abstulit  una  dies, 
5  forsitan  haec  a  quo  mittatur  epistula  quaeras, 

quisque  loquar  tecum,  certior  esse  velis. 
ei  mihi,  quid  faciam  ?  vereor  ne  nomine  lecto 

durus  et  aversa  cetera  mente  legas. 
videris.2     audebo  3  tibi  me  scripsisse  fateri 

10 , ,         .         .4 

qui,  cum  me  poena  dignum  graviore  fuisse 

confitear,  possum  vix  graviora  pati. 
hostibus  in  mediis  interque  pericula  versor, 

tamquam  cum  patria  pax  sit  adempta  mihi  : 
15  qui,  mortis  saevo  geminent  ut  vulnere  causas, 

omnia  vipereo  spicula  felle  linunt. 
his  eques  instructus  perterrita  moenia  lustrat 

more  lupi  clausas  circueuntis  oves  : 
et 5  semel  intentus  nervo  levis  arcus  equino 
20      vincula  semper  habens  inresoluta  manet. 
tecta  rigent  fixis  veluti  velata  6  sagittis, 

portaque  vix  firma  summovet  arma  sera. 

1  credant  2  viderit  corr.  Hetnsius 

8  audebo]  haec  siquis        4  om.  AC :  spuria  habent  celt. 

6  at  6  vallata 

270 


EX  PONTO,  I.  i.  75—ii.  22 

— never !  These  stings  will  not  leave  my  mind 
sooner  than  life  ;  he  who  suffers  will  perish  more 
quickly  than  the  suffering  itself.  If  the  celestials, 
to  whom  in  all  things  I  belong,  believe  me  in  this, 
perchance  I  shall  be  deemed  worthy  of  a  little  succour 
and  they  will  change  my  abode  to  one  free  from  the 
Scythian  bow  ;  should  I  pray  for  more  than  that,  my 
lips  will  be  bold  indeed. 

II.  To  MAXIMUS 

Maximus,  you  who  fill  out  the  measure  of  a  mighty 
name  doubling  nobility  of  birth  by  that  of  soul,  you 
for  whose  birth,  though  three  hundred  fell,  one  day 
did  not  destroy  all  the  Fabii  * — perchance  you  may 
ask  by  whom  this  letter  is  sent  and  wish  to  be  told 
who  am  I  that  talk  with  you.  Ah  me  !  what  am  I 
to  do  ?  I  fear  that  when  you  read  the  name  you  will 

Cv  stern  and  read  what  remains  with  heart  averse, 
k  you  to  that.  I  shall  venture  the  confession 
that  I  have  written  to  you.  ...  I,  who  admitting 
that  I  have  deserved  a  worse  punishment,  can  scarce 
endure  one  worse.  I  live  in  the  midst  of  enemies, 
in  the  midst  of  perils — as  if,  with  my  native  land, 
peace  had  been  taken  from  me — enemies  who,  to 
double  with  a  cruel  wound  the  causes  of  death,  smear 
every  dart  with  viper's  gall.  Equipped  with  these 
the  horseman  circles  the  frightened  walls  as  a  wolf 
runs  about  the  fenced  sheep.  The  light  bow  once 
bent  with  its  horsehair  string  remains  with  its  bonds 
ever  unrelaxed.  The  roofs  bristle  with  implanted 
arrows  as  if  shrouded  in  a  veil,  and  the  gate  scarce 
repels  attack  with  sturdy  bar. 

1  In  a  battle  with  the  Veientes,  more  than  300  Fabii  are 
said  to  have  fought,  and  only  one  escaped,  cf.  Livy  ii.  48. 

271 


OVID 

adde  loci  faciem  nee  fronde  nee  arbore  tecti.1 

et  quod  iners  hiemi  continuatur  hiems. 
25  hie  me  pugnantem  cum  frigore  cumque  sagittis 

cumque  meo  fato  quarta  fatigat  hiems. 
fine  carent  lacrimae,  nisi  cum  stupor  obstitit  illis  : 

et  similis  morti  pectora  torpor  habet. 
felicem  Nioben,  quamvis  tot  funera  vidit, 
30      quae  posuit  sensum  saxea  facta  malis  ! 
vos  quoque  felices,  quarum  clamantia  fratrem 

cortice  velavit  populus  ora  novo  ! 
ille  ego  sum,  lignum  qui  non  admittar  in  ullum  : 

ille  ego  sum,  frustra  qui  lapis  esse  velim. 
35  ipsa  Medusa  oculis  veniat  licet  obvia  nostris, 

amittet  vires  ipsa  Medusa  suas. 
vivimus  ut  numquam  sensu  careamus  arnaro, 

et  gravior  longa  fit  mea  poena  mora. 
sic  inconsumptum  Tityi  semperque  renascens 
40      non  perit,  ut  possit  saepe  perire,  iecur. 

at,  puto,  cum  requies  medicinaque  publica  curae 

somnus  adest,  solitis  nox  venit  orba  malis. 
somnia  me  terrent  veros  imitantia  casus, 

et  vigilant  sensus  in  mea  damria  mei. 
45  aut  ego  Sarmaticas  videor  vitare  sagittas, 

aut  dare  captivas  ad  fera  vincla  manus. 
aut  ubi  decipior  melioris  imagine  soinni, 

aspicio  patriae  tecta  relicta  meae. 
et  modo  vobiscum,  quos  sum  veneratus,  aniici, 
50      et  modo  cum  cara  coniuge  multa  loquor. 

sic  ubi  percepta  est  brevis  et  non  vera  voluptas, 

peior  ab  admonitu  fit  status  iste  boni. 
sive  dies  igitur  caput  hoc  miserabile  cernit, 

sive  pruiriosi  Noctis  aguntur  equi, 

*  laeti 

1  The  sisters  of  Phaethun. 
272 


EX  PONTO,  I.  n.  23-54 

23  Add  to  this  the  aspect  of  a  land  protected  by 
neither  leaf  nor  tree,  and  that  lifeless  winter  without 
break  runs  into  winter.  Here  am  I  fighting  with 
cold,  with  arrows,  with  my  own  fate,  in  the  weariness 
of  the  fourth  winter.  My  tears  are  limitless  save 
when  a  lethargy  checks  them,  and  a  deathlike  stupor 
possesses  my  breast.  Happy  Niobe,  though  she  saw 
so  many  deaths,  for  she  lost  sensation  when  she  was 
turned  to  stone  by  her  misfortunes.  Happy  you  l 
also  whose  lips,  in  the  act  of  calling  upon  your  brother, 
the  poplar  clothed  with  new  bark.  I  am  one  who 
am  transformed  into  no  wood,  I  am  one  who  in  vain 
wish  to  be  a  stone.  Should  Medusa  herself  come 
before  my  eyes,  even  Medusa  will  lose  her  power. 
My  life  is  such  that  I  never  lose  the  bitterness  of 
sensation  and  my  punishment  becomes  worse  through 
its  long  duration.  So  Tityus's  liver  unconsumed  and 
ever  growing  anew  perishes  not,  in  order  that  it  may 
have  the  power  to  be  ever  perishing. 

41  "  But,"  I  suppose,  "  when  rest  and  sleep,  the 
common  healer  of  cares,  attend  me,  night  comes  free 
from  the  usual  woes  !  "  Dreams  affright  me  that 
mimic  real  dangers,  and  my  senses  wake  to  my  own 
hurt.  Either  I  think  myself  avoiding  Sarmatian 
arrows  or  offering  a  captive's  hands  to  cruel  bonds  or, 
when  I  am  beguiled  by  the  semblance  of  a  happier 
dream,  I  behold  the  buildings  of  the  native  city  I 
have  left,  I  hold  long  converse  now  with  you,  my 
friends,  whom  I  once  revered,  now  with  my  dear  wife. 
Thus  when  I  have  had  this  short  and  unreal  joy, 
the  remembrance  of  happiness  renders  this  state  of 
mine  all  the  worse. 

63  So  whether  day  beholds  this  wretched  being  or 

whether  Night  is  driving  her  frosty  steeds,  my  heart 

T  273 


OVID 

65  sic  mea  perpetuis  liquefiunt l  pectora  curis, 

ignibus  admotis  ut  nova  cera  solet. 
saepe  precor  mortem,  mortem  quoque  deprecor  idem, 

ne  mea  Sarmaticum  contegat  ossa  solum. 
cum  subit  Augusti  quae  sit  dementia,  credo 
60      mollia  naufragiis  litora  posse  dari. 

cum  video  quam  sint  mea  fata  tenacia,  frangor, 

spesque  levis  magno  victa  timore  cadit. 
nee  tamen  ulterius  quicquam  sperove  precorve, 

quam  male  mutato  posse  carere  loco. 
65  aut  hoc,  aut  nihil  est,  pro  me  temptare  modeste 

gratia  quod  salvo  vestra  pudore  queat. 
suscipe,  Romanae  facundia,  Maxime,  linguae, 

difficilis  causae  mite  patrocinium. 
est  mala,  confiteor,  sed  te  bona  fiet  agente, 
70      lenia  pro  misera  fac  modo  verba  fuga. 

nescit  enim  Caesar,  quamvis  deus  omnia  norit, 

ultimus  hie  qua  sit  condicione  locus, 
magna  tenent  illud  numen  molimina  rerum  : 

haec  est  caelesti  pectore  cura  minor. 
75  nee  vacat,  in  qua  sint  positi  regione  Tomitae, 

quaerere,  finitimo  vix  loca  nota  Getae, 
aut  quid  Sauromatae  faciant,  quid  lazyges  acres 

cultaque  Oresteae  Taurica  terra  deae, 
quaeque  aliae  gentes,  ubi  frigore  constitit  Hister, 
80      dura  meant  celeri  terga  per  amnis  equo. 

maxima  pars  hominum  nee  te,  pulcherrima,  curat, 

Roma,  nee  Ausonii  militis  arma  timet. 
dant  illis  animos  arcus  plenaeque  pharetrae 

quamque  libet  longis  cursibus  aptus  equus, 
86  quodque  sitim  didicere  diu  tolerare  famemque, 
quodque  sequens  nullas  hostis  habebit  aquas. 

1  liquescimt 
274 


EX   PONTO,  I.  n.  55-86 

melts  from  unending  sorrows  as  fresh  wax  is  wont 
to  do  when  fire  is  brought  near.  Often  I  pray  for 
death,  yet  I  even  beg  off  from  death  for  fear  that 
the  Sarmatian  soil  may  cover  my  bones.  When  I 
remember  Augustus's  mercy,  I  believe  it  possible  that 
a  kindly  shore  may  be  offered  for  my  shipwreck. 
When  I  see  how  persistent  is  my  fate,  I  break  down 
and  my  slight  hope  falls  away  vanquished  by  a  mighty 
fear.  Yet  I  neither  hope  nor  pray  for  anything 
further  than  the  power  even  by  a  wretched  change 
to  be  rid  of  this  place.  Tis  either  this  or  nothing 
that  your  favour  can  attempt  in  moderation  for  me 
without  impairing  your  self-respect.  Maximus, 
eloquence  of  the  Roman  tongue,  take  upon  yourself 
the  merciful  pleading  of  a  difficult  case.  A  bad  case, 
I  admit,  but  it  will  become  a  good  one  if  you  plead  it ; 
only  utter  some  words  of  sympathy  in  behalf  of 
wretched  exile.  For  Caesar  knows  not,  though  a 
god  knows  all  things,  the  nature  of  this  remote  place. 
Great  undertakings  engross  his  divine  mind  ;  this  is 
a  matter  too  small  for  his  godlike  heart.  He  has  no 
leisure  to  inquire  where  the  Tomitae  are  situated,  a 
region  hardly  known  to  the  neighbouring  Getan  ;  or 
what  the  Sauromatae  are  doing,  or  the  fierce  lazyges, 
and  the  Tauric  land  watched  over  by  Orestes'  god- 
dess,1 or  what  other  tribes,  when  cold  halts  the 
Hister's  flow,  wind  along  the  icy  back  of  the  stream 
on  swift  horses.  The  most  of  these  people  neither 
care  for  thee,  fair  Rome,  nor  fear  the  arms  of  Ausonian 
soldiery.  Bows  and  full  quivers  lend  them  courage, 
and  horses  capable  of  marches  however  lengthy 
and  the  knowledge  how  to  endure  for  long  both 
thirst  and  hunger,  and  that  a  pursuing  enemy  will 
1  Diana. 

275 


OVID 

ira  viri  mitis  non  me  misisset  in  istam, 
si  satis  haec  illi  nota  fuisset  humus, 
nee  me  nee  quemquam  Romanum  gaudet  ab  hoste, 
90      meque  minus,  vitam  cui  dabat l  ipse,  capi. 
noluit,  ut2  poterat,  minimo  me  perdere  nutu. 

nil  opus  est  ullis  in  mea  fata  Getis. 
sed  neque,  cur  morerer,  quicquam  mihi  comperit 

actum, 

et  minus  infestus,  quam  fuit,  esse  potest. 
95  tune  quoque  nil  fecit  nisi  quod  facere  ipse  coegi  : 

paene  etiam  merito  parcior  ira  meo  est. 
di  faciant  igitur,  quorum  iustissimus  ipse  est, 

alma  nihil  maius  Caesare  terra  ferat, 
utque  fuit 3  sub  eo,  sic  sit  sub  Caesare  terra,4 
100      perque  manus  huius  tradita  gentis  eat. 

at  tu  tarn  plaeido,  quam  nos  quoque  sensimus  ilium 

iudice  pro  lacrimis  ora  resolve  meis. 
non  petito  5  ut  bene  sit,  sed  uti  male  tutius,  utque 

exilium  saevo  distet  ab  hoste  meum, 
105  quamque  dedere  mihi  praesentia  numina  vitam, 

non  adimat  stricto  squalidus  ense  Getes  : 
denique,  si  moriar,  subeam  pacatius  arvum, 

ossa  nee  a  Scythica  nostra  prernantur  humo, 
nee  male  compositos,  ut  scilicet  exule  dignum, 
110      Bistonii  cineres  ungula  pulset  equi, 

et  ne,  si  superest  aliquis  post  funera  sensus, 

terreat  et  Manes  Sarmatis  umbra  meos. 
Caesaris  haec  animum  poterant  audita  movere, 

Maxime,  movissent  si  tamen  ante  tuum. 
115  vox,  precor,  Augustas  pro  me  tua  molliat  aures, 
auxilio  trepidis  quae  solet  esse  reis, 

1  dedit  vel  dabit  corr.  Merkd        2  at        3  diu  :  fuit  Ehwald 

4  sit  publica  saroina  terrae  (publice  saroterra  A} 

6  petis  vel  pete  corr.  Daumius 

276 


EX  PONTO,  I.  ii.  87-116 

have  no  water.  The  wrath  of  a  merciful  man  would 
not  have  sent  me  to  such  a  land  if  he  had  known  it 
well.  Nor  is  he  pleased  that  I  or  any  Roman  be 
taken  by  an  enemy — I  least  of  all,  to  whom  he  him- 
self granted  life.  He  would  not,  as  he  could  have 
done,  destroy  me  with  the  slightest  nod.  There  is 
no  need  of  any  Getae  to  bring  about  my  death.  But 
he  found  no  act  on  my  part  worthy  of  death,  and  'tis 
possible  that  he  is  less  incensed  against  me  than  he 
was.  Even  then  he  did  nothing  save  what  I  forced 
him  to  do  ;  his  wrath  is  almost  more  moderate  than 
I  deserve.  May  then  the  gods,  of  whom  he  is  him- 
self the  most  just,  cause  the  nourishing  earth  to  bring 
forth  nothing  greater  than  Caesar,  and  as  it  has  been 
long  under  Caesar's  sway,  so  may  it  continue,  passing 
on  through  the  hands  of  his  family. 

101  But  do  you  open  your  lips  in  behalf  of  my  tears 
at  a  time  when  the  judge  is  as  mild  as  I  found  him. 
Ask  not  that  I  may  be  happy,  but  that  I  may  be  safer 
in  my  unhappiness,  that  my  place  of  exile  may  be 
distant  from  the  cruel  enemy  ;  that  the  life  granted 
me  by  a  very  present  deity  may  not  be  taken  from 
me  by  the  drawn  sword  of  some  filthy  Getan  ;  in 
fine,  if  I  should  die,  that  I  may  be  buried  in  a  more 
peaceful  land  and  my  bones  be  not  crushed  down  by 
Scythian  soil,  nor  my  ashes,  meanly  buried,  as  doubt- 
less an  exile  deserves,  be  trampled  by  the  hoof  of  a 
Bistonian  horse  ;  and  if  there  be  some  feeling  that 
survives  after  death,  that  no  Sarmatian  shade  terrify 
even  my  spirit. 

113  This  tale,  Maximus,  might  move  the  soul  of 
Caesar,  yet  only  if  it  had  first  moved  yours.  Let  your 
voice,  I  pray,  soften  in  my  behalf  the  ears  of  Caesar, 
for  it  is  wont  to  aid  frightened  defendants,  and  with 

277 


OVID 

adsuetaque  tibi  doctae  dulcedine  linguae 

aequandi  superis  pectora  flecte  viri. 
non  tibi  Theromedon  crudusque  rogabitur  Atreus, 
120      quique  suis  homines  pabula  fecit  equis, 

sed  piger  ad  poenas  princeps,  ad  praemia  velox, 

quique  dolet,  quotiens  cogitur  esse  ferox, 
qui  vicit  semper,  victis  ut  parcere  posset, 

clausit  et  aeterna  civica  bella  sera, 
125  multa  metu  poenae,  poena 1  qui  pauca  coercet, 

et  iacit  invita  fulmina  rara  manu. 
ergo  tarn  placidas  orator  missus  ad  aures, 

ut  propior  patriae  sit  fuga  nostra  roga. 
ille  ego  sum,  qui  te  colui,  quern  festa  solebat 
130      inter  convivas  mensa  videre  tuos  : 

ille  ego,  qui  duxi  vestros  Hymenaeon  ad  ignes, 

et  cecini  fausto  carmina  digna  toro, 
cuius  te  soli  turn  memini  laudare  libellos, 

exceptis  domino  qui  nocuere  suo, 
135  cui  tua  nonnumquam  miranti  scripta  legebas  : 

ille  ego  de  vestra  cui  data  nupta  domo  est. 
hanc  probat  et  primo  dilectam  semper  ab  aevo 

est  inter  comites  Marcia  censa  suas, 
inque  suis  habuit  matertera  Caesaris  ante  : 
140      quarum  iudicio  siqua  probata,  proba  est. 
ipsa  sua  melior  fama,  laudantibus  istis, 

Claudia  divina  non  eguisset  ope. 
nos  quoque  praeteritos  sine  labe  peregimus  annos : 

proxima  pars  vitae  transilienda  meae. 
1  et  qui  multa  metu  sed  poena  vel  multa  metu  cohibet  poena 

1  Diomedes,  king  of  the  Bistones. 
278 


EX  PONTO,  I.  n.  117-144 

the  usual  sweetness  of  your  accomplished  tongue 
influence  the  heart  of  a  hero  whom  we  must  liken 
to  the  gods.  You  will  have  to  appeal  to  no  Thero 
medon,  no  cruel  Atreus,  or  to  him l  who  made  human 
beings  fodder  for  his  horses,  but  to  a  prince,  slow 
to  punish,  quick  to  reward,  who  sorrows  whenever 
he  is  forced  to  be  severe,  who  has  ever  conquered 
that  he  might  have  power  to  spare  the  conquered, 
who  has  shut  in  civil  war  with  an  everlasting  bar,  who 
controls  many  things  by  the  fear  of  punishment,  few 
by  punishment  itself,  hurling  the  thunderbolt  rarely 
and  with  unwilling  hand. 

127  So  then  since  you  are  sent  to  plead  in  such  merci- 
ful ears  ask  that  my  place  of  exile  may  be  nearer  my 
native  land.  I  am  he  who  attended  upon  you,  whom 
the  festal  board  used  to  see  among  your  guests,  I  am 
he  who  led  Hymenaeus  to  your  wedding  torches  and 
sang  a  lay  worthy  of  your  propitious  union,  whose 
books,  I  remember,  you  used  to  praise  with  the 
exception  of  those  which  harmed  their  master  ;  who 
used  to  admire  the  writings  that  you  sometimes  read 
to  him,  to  whom  a  bride  2  was  given  from  your  house- 
hold. She  has  the  respect  of  Marcia,3  who  has  loved 
her  from  her  early  years  and  given  her  a  place 
among  her  companions  ;  earlier  still  Caesar's  aunt4  so 
regarded  her,  and  any  woman  approved  in  their 
judgment  is  indeed  approved.  Even  she  who  was 
better  than  her  own  fame,  even  Claudia,  had  such 
women  praised  her,  would  have  needed  no  divine  aid. 

143  I,  too,  lived  the  years  that  are  past  without  a 
blemish  ;  the  most  recent  part  of  my  life  must  be 
passed  over  in  silence.  But  to  say  naught  of  myself, 

2  Ovid's  third  wife,  perhaps  a  Fabia.     8  The  wife  of  Maximus. 
4  Atia  minor,  wife  of  L.  Marcius  Philippus. 

279 


OVID 

145  sed  de  me  ut  sileam,1  coniunx  mea  sarcina  vestra  est : 

non  potes  hanc  salva  dissimulare  fide, 
confugit  haec  ad  vos,  vestras  amplectitur  aras 

— iure  venit  cultos  ad  sibi  quisque  deos — 
flensque  rogat,  precibus  lenito  Caesare  vestris, 
150      busta  sui  flant  ut  propiora  viri. 


III. 

Hanc  tibi  Naso  tuus  mittit,  Rufine,  salutem, 

qui  miser  est,  ulli  si  suus  esse  potest. 
reddita  confusae  nuper  solacia  menti 

auxilium  nostris  spemque  tulere  malis. 
5  utque  Machaoniis  Poeantius  artibus  heros 

lenito  medicam  vulnere  sensit  opem, 
sic  ego  mente  iacens  et  acerbo  saucius  ictu 

adinomtu  coepi  fortior  esse  tuo, 
et  iam  deficiens  sic  ad  tua  verba  revixi, 
10      ut  solet  infuso  vena  redire  mero. 

non  tamen  exhibuit  tantas  facundia  vires, 

ut  mea  sint  dictis  pectora  sana  tuis. 
ut  multum  demas  nostrae  2  de  gurgite  curae, 

non  minus  exhausto  quod  superabit  erit. 
15  tempore  ducetur  longo  fortasse  cicatrix  : 

horrent  admotas  vulnera  cruda  manus. 
non  est  in  medico  semper  relevetur  ut  aeger  : 

interdum  docta  plus  valet  arte  malum. 
cernis  ut  e  molli  sanguis  pulmone  remissus 
20      ad  Stygias  certo  limite  ducat  aquas, 
afferat  ipse  licet  sacras  Epidaurius  herbas, 

sanabit  nulla  vulnera  cordis  ope. 

1  taceam  2  nostro  corpora  (pectore) 

280 


EX  PONTO,  I.  n.  145— m.  22 

my  wife  is  a  charge  upon  you  ;  you  cannot  deny  her 
and  maintain  your  loyalty.  She  flees  to  you  for 
refuge,  embracing  your  altar  (rightly  does  each  come 
to  the  gods  whom  he  himself  worships)  and  in  tears 
she  begs  that  you  may  soften  Caesar  by  your  prayers 
and  bring  the  tomb  of  her  husband  nearer. 


III.  To  RUFINUS 

This  greeting,  Rufmus,  your  friend  Naso  sends  you 
— if  a  wretched  man  can  be  anyone's  friend. 

3  The  consolation  that  but  now  you  sent  to  my  dis- 
tressed heart  brought  aid  and  hope  to  my  woes. 
As  the  Poeantian  hero  l  through  the  art  of  Machaon 
felt  in  his  soothed  wound  the  healing  aid,  so  I,  pros- 
trate in  soul  and  wounded  by  a  bitter  blow,  began  to 
grow  stronger  through  your  admonition  when  I  was 
just  on  the  point  of  failing ;  I  was  as  much  restored  by 
your  words  as  the  pulse  is  wont  to  revive  when  wine 
is  administered.  Yet  your  eloquence  had  not  such 
power  that  my  heart  is  whole  through  your  words. 
You  may  take  much  from  my  flood  of  woe,  but  there 
will  remain  not  less  than  you  have  drained  away. 
Perhaps  in  long  time  a  scar  will  form  ;  a  raw  wound 
quivers  at  the  touch  of  a  hand.  'Tis  not  always  in 
a  physician's  power  to  cure  the  sick  ;  at  times  the 
disease  is  stronger  than  trained  art.  You  see  how 
the  blood  emitted  from  a  tender  lung  leads  by  an 
unerring  path  to  the  waters  of  the  Styx.  Let  the 
Epidaurian  2  in  person  bring  holy  herbs,  he  will  have 
no  skill  with  which  to  heal  wounds  in  the  heart.  The 

1  Philoctetes. 
*  Aesculapius,  whose  greatest  temple  was  at  Epidaurus. 

281 


OVID 

tollere  nodosam  nescit  medicina  podagram, 

nee  formidatis  auxiliatur  aquis. 
25  cura  quoque  interdum  nulla  medicabilis  arte  est — 

aut,  ut  sit,  longa  est  extenuanda  mora. 
cum  bene  firmarunt  animum  praecepta  iacentem, 

sumptaque  sunt  nobis  pectoris  arma  tui, 
rursus  amor  patriae  ratione  valentior  omni, 
30      quod  tua  fecerunt  scripta,  retexit  opus, 
sive  pium  vis  hoc  sive  hoc  muliebre  vocari, 

confiteor  misero  molle  cor  esse  mihi. 
non  dubia  est  Ithaci  prudentia,  sed  tamen  optat 

fumum  de  patriis  posse  videre  focis. 
35  nescioqua  natale  solum  dulcedine  cunctos 

ducit  et  inmemores  non  sinit  esse  sui. 
quid  melius  Roma  ?   Scythico  quid  frigore  peius  ? 

hue  tamen  ex  ilia1  barbarus  urbe  fugit. 
cum  bene  sit  clausae  cavea  Pandione  natae, 
40      nititur  in  silvas  ilia  redire  suas. 
adsuetos  tauri  saltus,  adsueta  leones — 

nee  feritas  illos  impedit — antra  petunt. 
tu  tamen  exilii  morsus  e  pectore  nostro 

fomentis  speras  cedere  posse  tuis. 
45  effice  vos  ipsi  ne  tam  mihi  sitis  amandi, 

talibus  ut  levius  sit  caruisse  malum. 
at,  puto,  qua  genitus  fueram,  tellure  carenti 

in  tamen  humano  contigit  esse  loco, 
orbis  in  extremi  iaceo  desertus  harenis, 
60      fert  ubi  perpetuas  obruta  terra  nives. 

non  ager  hie  pomum,  non  dulces  educat  uvas,2 

non  salices  ripa,  robora  monte  virent. 
neve  fretum  laudes  terra  magis,  aequora  semper 

ventorum  rabie  solibus  orba  tument. 

1  ista  2  herbas 

l  Ulysses.  a  Philomela,  the  nightingale. 

282 


EX  PONTO,  I.  in.  23-54 

healing  art  knows  not  how  to  remove  crippling  gout, 
it  helps  not  the  fearful  dropsy.  Sorrow  too  can  find 
at  times  no  skill  that  will  cure  it  or  else  to  be  cured 
it  must  be  worn  away  by  long  time.  When  your 
admonitions  have  strengthened  my  prostrate  soul  and 
I  have  put  on  the  armour  of  your  heart,  once  again 
my  love  for  the  fatherland,  stronger  than  any  reason- 
ing, undoes  the  work  that  your  writings  have  wrought. 
Whether  you  call  this  loyal  or  womanish,  I  admit  that 
in  my  wretchedness  my  heart  is  soft.  None  doubt 
the  Ithacan's  l  wisdom,  but  yet  he  prays  that  he  may 
see  the  smoke  from  his  native  hearth.  By  what 
sweet  charm  I  know  not  the  native  land  draws  all 
men  nor  allows  them  to  forget  her.  What  is  better 
than  Rome  ?  What  worse  than  the  cold  of  Scythia  ? 
Yet  hither  the  barbarian  flees  from  that  city.  Though 
Pandion's  daughter  2  may  be  well  off  in  her  cage,  she 
strives  to  return  to  her  own  forests .  Bullocks  seek  their 
familiar  pastures,  lions  in  spite  of  their  wild  nature 
their  familiar  lairs.  Nevertheless  you  hope  that  the 
gnawing  pangs  of  exile  can  be  made  by  your  soothing 
to  leave  my  breast.  See  to  it  that  you  and  yours  be 
not  yourselves  so  dear  to  me  ;  so  will  it  be  a  slighter 
misfortune  to  be  deprived  of  you.  "  But,"  I  suppose, 
"  though  I  am  separated  from  the  land  of  my  birth,  I 
have  yet  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  in  a  place  where 
men  dwell !  "  At  the  edge  of  the  world  I  lie  aban- 
doned on  the  strand,  where  the  buried  earth  supports 
constant  snows.  No  fields  here  produce  fruit,  nor 
sweet  grapes,  no  willows  are  green  upon  the  bank, 
nor  oaks  upon  the  hill.  Nor  can  you  praise  the  sea 
more  than  the  land,  for  the  sunless  waters  ever  heave 
beneath  the  madness  of  the  winds.  Wherever  you 

283 


OVID 

55  quocumque  aspicies,1  campi  cultore  carentcs 

vastaque,  quae  nemo  vindicat,  arva  iacent. 
hostis  adest  dextra  laevaque  a  parte  timendus, 

vicinoque  metu  terret  utrumque  latus. 
altera  Bistonias  pars  est  sensura  sarisas, 
60      altera  Sarmatica  spicula  missa  manu. 
i  nunc  et  veterum  nobis  exempla  virorum 

qui  forti  casum  mente  tulere  refer, 
et  grave  magnanimi  robur  mirare  Rutili 

non  usi  reditus  condi clone  dati. 
65  Smyrna  virum  tenuit,  non  Pontus  et  hostica  tellus, 

paene  minus  nullo  Smyrna  petenda  loco, 
non  doluit  patria  cynicus  procul  esse  Sinopeus, 

legit  enim  sedes,  Attica  terra,  tuas. 
arma  Neoclides  qui  Persica  contudit  armis, 
70      Argolica  primam  sensit  in  urbe  fugam. 
pulsus  Aristides  patria  Lacedaemona  fugit, 

inter  quas  dubium,  quae  prior  esset,  erat. 
caede  puer  facta  Patroclus  Opunta  reliquit, 

Thessalicamque  adiit  hospes  Achillis  humum. 
75  exul  ab  Haemonia  Pirenida  cessit  ad  undam, 

quo  duce  trabs  Colcha  sacra  cucurrit  aqua, 
liquit  Agenorides  Sidonia  moenia  Cadmus, 

poneret  ut  muros  in  meliore  loco, 
venit  ad  Adrastum  Tydeus  Calydone  fugatus, 
80      et  Teucrum  Veneri  grata  recepit  humus. 

quid  referam  veteres  Romanae  gentis,  apud  quos 

exulibus  tellus  ultima  Tibur  erat  ? 
persequar  ut  cunctos,  nulli  datus  omnibus  aevis 

tarn  procul  a  patria  est  horridiorve  locus. 


1  P.  Rutilius  Rufus,  an  opponent  of  Marius,  who  went 
into  voluntary  exile  at  Smyrna. 

284 


EX  PONTO,  I.  in.  55-84 

gaze,  lie  plains  with  no  tillers,  vast  steppes  which 
no  man  claims.  Close  at  hand  on  the  right  and  left 
is  a  dreaded  enemy  terrifying  us  with  imminent  fear 
on  both  sides.  One  side  is  on  the  eve  of  feeling  the 
Bistonian  spears,  the  other  the  darts  sped  by  the 
hand  of  the  Sarmatian.  Now  then  go  and  cite  for 
me  the  example  of  men  of  old  who  bore  danger  with 
strong  mind ;  admire  the  impressive  strength  of 
great-souled  Rutilius  x  who  would  not  avail  himself  of 
the  proffered  offer  of  return  home  !  Smyrna  held 
him,  not  the  Pontus  or  a  hostile  land — Smyrna,  than 
which  scarce  any  place  is  more  to  be  desired.  It 
grieved  not  the  cynic  2  of  Sinope  to  be  far  from  his 
native  city,  for  he  chose  a  home  in  the  land  of  Attica. 
Neocles'  son,3  who  with  arms  beat  down  the  arms  of 
Persia,  first  experienced  exile  in  the  city  of  Argos. 
Aristides  expelled  from  his  native  city  found  refuge 
in  Sparta — and  it  was  doubtful  which  of  these  two 
excelled.  Young  Patroclus,  having  slain  a  man,  left 
Opus  and  became  the  guest  of  Achilles  in  Thessaly. 
From  Haemonia  to  Pirene's  spring  fled  the  exile 4 
under  whose  guidance  the  sacred  ship  skimmed  the 
waters  of  Colchis.  Agenor's  son  Cadmus  left  the 
battlements  of  Sidon  to  establish  walls  in  a  better 
place.5  Tydeus  came  to  Adrastus 6  when  exiled 
from  Calydon,  Teucer  found  refuge  in  the  land7  that 
Venus  loves.  Why  need  I  tell  of  the  men  of  olden 
Roman  race  with  whom  the  remotest  land  of  exile 
was  Tibur 8  ?  Though  I  should  enumerate  every 
exile,  none  in  any  age  has  ever  been  assigned  to  a 
more  forbidding  place  so  far  from  his  native  land. 

2  Diofrenes.  3  Themistocles.  4  Jason. 

6  Thebes.  6  At  Argos.  7  Cyprus. 

8  About  eighteen  miles  from  Rome. 

285 


OVID 

85  quo  magis  ignoscat  sapientia  vestra  dolenti  : 

quae  facit  ex  dictis,  non  ita  multa,  tuis. 
nee  tamen  infitior,  si  possint  nostra  coire 

vulnera,  praeceptis  posse  coire  tuis. 
sed  vereor  ne  me  frustra  servare  labores, 
90      neu  iuver  admota  perditus  aeger  ope. 

nee  loquor  haec,  quia  sit  maior  prudentia  nobis, 

sed  sum  quam  medico  notior  ipse  mihi. 
ut  tamen  hoc  ita  sit,  munus  tua  grande  voluntas 

ad  me  pervenit  consuliturque  boni. 


IV. 

lam  mihi  deterior  canis  aspergitur  aetas, 

iamque  meos  vultus  ruga  senilis  arat  : 
iam  vigor  et  quasso  languent  in  corpore  vires, 

nee,  iuveni  lusus  qui  placuere,  iuvant. 
5  nee,  si  me  subito  videas,  agnoscere  possis, 

aetatis  facta  est  tanta  ruina  meae. 
confiteor  facere  hoc  annos,  sed  et  altera  causa  est, 

anxietas  animi  continuusque  labor, 
nam  mea  per  longos  siquis  mala  digerat  annos, 
10      crede  mihi,  Pylio  Nestore  maior  ero. 

cernis  ut  in  duris — et  quid  bove  firmius  ? — arvis 

fortia  taurorum  corpora  frangat  opus, 
quae  numquam  vacuo  solita  est  cessare  novali, 

fructibus  assiduis  lassa  senescit  humus. 
15  occidet,  ad  Circi  siquis  certamina  semper 

non  intermissis  cursibus  ibit  equus. 
firma  sit  ilia  licet,  solvetur  in  aequore  navis, 

quae  numquam  liquidis  sicca  carebit  aquis. 
286 


EX  PONTO,  I.  m.  85— iv.  18 

85  And  so  let  your  wisdom  pardon  one  in  grief ;  what 
he  does  that  is  in  accord  with  your  words  is  not  much. 
Yet  I  do  not  deny  that  could  my  wounds  heal,  'tis 
through  your  teaching  they  could  heal.  But  I  fear 
that  it  is  in  vain  you  strive  to  save  me,  and  that  I  shall 
not  be  helped  in  my  desperate  sickness  by  the  aid 
you  bring.  And  this  I  say,  not  because  I  have  the 
greater  wisdom,  but  I  know  myself  better  than  any 
doctor  can.  Yet  in  spite  of  this,  your  good  will  has 
come  to  me  as  a  great  boon  and  I  take  it  in  good  part. 


IV.  To  HIS  WIFE 

Now  is  the  worse  period  of  life  upon  me  with  its 
sprinkling  of  white  hairs,  now  the  wrinkles  of  age  are 
furrowing  my  face,  now  energy  and  strength  are 
weakening  in  my  shattered  frame.  On  a  sudden 
shouldst  thou  see  me,  thou  couldst  not  recognize  me  ; 
such  havoc  has  been  wrought  with  my  life.  I  admit 
that  this  is  the  work  of  the  years,  but  there  is  yet 
another  cause — anguish  and  constant  suffering.  For 
should  my  misfortunes  be  distributed  by  anybody 
through  a  long  series  of  years,  I  shall  be  older,  I 
assure  thee,  than  Pylian  Nestor. 

11  Thou  seest  how  in  the  stubborn  fields  the  sturdy 
bullocks — and  what  is  stronger  than  a  bullock  ? — are 
broken  in  body  with  toil.  The  land  which  has  never 
been  wont  to  rest  as  idle  fallow,  grows  weary  and  old 
with  constant  production.  That  horse  will  fall  which 
enters  every  contest  of  the  Circus  without  omission. 
Strong  though  she  be,  the  ship  will  break  up  in  the 
sea  which  never  is  hauled  from  the  clear  waters  to 

287 


OVID 

me  quoque  debilitat  series  inmensa  malorum,1 
20      ante  meum  tempus  cogit  et  esse  senem. 
otia  corpus  alunt,  animus  quoque  pascitur  illis  : 

inmodicus  contra  carpi t  utrumque  labor, 
aspice,  in  has  partis  quod  venerit  Aesone  natus, 

quam  laudem  a  sera  posteritate  ferat. 
25  at  labor  illius  nostro  leviorque  minorque  est, 

si  modo  non  verum  nomina  magna  premunt. 
ille  est  in  Pontum  Pelia  mittente  profectus, 

qui  vix  Thessaliae  fine  timendus  erat. 
Caesaris  ira  mihi  nocuit,  quern  solis  ab  ortu 
30      solis  ad  occasus  utraque  terra  trcmit. 

iunctior  Haemonia  est  Ponto,  quam  Roma,  Sinistro,2 

et  brevius,  quam  nos,  ille  peregit  iter. 
ille  habuit  comites  primos  telluris  Achivae  : 

at  nostram  cuncti  destituere  fugam. 
35  nos  fragili  ligno  vastum  sulcavimus  aequor  : 
quae  tulit  Aesoniden,  densa  carina  3  fuit. 
nee  mihi  Tiphys  erat  rector,  nee  Agenore  natus 

quas  fugerem  docuit  quas  sequererque  vias. 
ilium  tutata  est  cum  Pallade  regia  luno  : 
40      defendere  meum  numina  nulla  caput. 
ilium  furtivae  iuvere  Cupidinis  artes  ; 

quas  a  me  vellem  non  didicisset  Amor, 
ille  domum  rediit :  nos  his  moriemur  in  arvis, 

perstiterit  laesi  si  gravis  ira  dei. 
45  durius  est  igitur  nostrum,  fidissima  coniunx, 

illo,  quod  subiit  Aesone  natus,  opus.4 
te  quoque,  quam  iuvenem  discedens  urbe  reliqui, 

credibile  est  nostris  insenuisse  malis. 
o,  ego  di  faciant  talem  te  cernere  possim,6 
50      caraque  mutatis  oscula  ferre  comis, 

1  laborum  2  sit  bistro  corr.  Burmann 

3  sacra  carina  (sa  carina)  vel  firma  carina 

288 


EX  PONTO,  I.  iv.  19-50 

dry.  I  too  am  weakened  by  the  measureless  series 
of  my  woes  and  am  perforce  an  old  man  before  my 
time. 

21  Leisure  nourishes  the  body,  the  mind  too  feeds 
upon  it,  but  excessive  toil  impairs  both.  Behold 
what  praise  the  son  *  of  Aeson,  because  he  came  to 
this  region,  receives  from  late  posterity.  Yet  his 
toil  was  lighter  and  smaller  than  mine,  if  only  mighty 
names  do  not  keep  down  the  truth.  He  set  forth  to 
Pontus  dispatched  by  Pelias  who  was  scarce  dreaded 
as  far  as  the  bounds  of  Thessaly.  Caesar's  anger 
wrought  my  ruin  at  whom  the  world  of  sunrise  and 
of  sunset  alike  tremble.  Haemonia  is  closer  to  ill- 
omened  Pontus  than  Rome,  and  he  completed  a 
shorter  journey  than  I.  He  had  as  comrades  the 
leaders  of  the  Achaean  land,  but  I  was  abandoned  of 
all  on  my  journey.  In  a  frail  bark  I  ploughed  the 
vast  sea  ;  the  one  that  carried  Aeson  *s  son  was  a 
staunch  ship.  I  had  no  Tiphys  for  a  pilot  nor  did 
Agenor's  son  2  teach  me  what  ways  to  avoid  and  what 
to  follow.  He  was  safeguarded  by  Pallas  and  queenly 
Juno  ;  no  deities  defended  my  life.  He  was  aided 
by  the  wily  arts  of  Cupid  ;  would  that  Love  had  not 
learned  them  from  me  !  He  came  back  to  his  home  ; 
I  shall  die  in  this  land,  if  the  weighty  wrath  of  the 
injured  god  persists.  Harder  then  is  my  task,  my 
faithful  wife,  than  that  which  Aeson 's  son  endured. 

47  Thou  too,  whom  I  left  in  youth  when  I  set  out 
from  the  city,  doubtless  hast  aged  in  consequence  of 
my  misfortunes.  O,  may  the  gods  grant  that  I  can  see 
thee  thus,  lovingly  kiss  thy  altered  locks,  and  folding 

1  Jason.  2  Phineus. 


289 


OVID 

amplectique  meis  corpus  non  pingue  lacertis, 

et  "  gracile  hoc  fecit  "  dicere  "  cura  mei," 
et  narrare  meos  flenti  flens  ipse  labor es, 

sperato  numquam  conloquioque  frui, 
66  turaque  Caesaribus  cum  coniuge  Caesare  digna, 

dis  veris,  memori  debita  ferre  manu  ! 
Memnonis  hanc  utinam  lenito  principe  mater 

quam  primum  roseo  provocet  ore  diem  ! 


V. 

Ille  tuos  quondam  non  ultimus  inter  amicos, 

ut  sua  verba  legas,  Maxime,  Naso  rogat. 
in  quibus  ingenium  desiste  requirere  nostrum, 

nescius  exilii  ne  videare  mei. 
6  cernis  ut  ignavum  corrumpant  otia  corpus, 

ut  capiant  vitium,1  ni  moveantur,  aquae, 
et  mihi  siquis  erat  ducendi  carminis  usus, 

deficit  estque  minor  factus  inerte  situ, 
haec  quoque,  quae  legitis,  siquid  mihi,  Maxime,  credis, 
10      scribimus  invita  vixque  coacta  manu. 
non  libet  in  talis  animum  contendere  curas, 

nee  venit  ad  duros  Musa  vocata  Getas. 
ut  tamen  ipse  vides,  luctor  deducere  versum  : 

sed  non  fit  fato  mollior  ille  meo. 
16  cum  relego,  scripsisse  pudet,  quia  plurima  cerno 

me  quoque,  qui  feci,  iudice  digna  lini. 
nee  tamen  emendo.     labor  hie  quam  scribere  maior, 

mensque  pati  durum  sustinet  aegra  nihil. 
scilicet  incipiam  lima  mordacius  uti, 
20      et  sub  iudicium  singula  verba  vocem  ? 

1  capeant  vitio 
290 


EX  PONTO,  I.  iv.  51— v.  20 

thy  slender  body  in  my  arms  say,  "  Love  for  me  hath 
wasted  thee  so,"  and  amid  mutual  tears  tell  thee  of 
my  sufferings,  enjoying  a  talk  I  have  never  hoped  for, 
and  offering  to  the  Caesars  and  the  wife  who  is 
worthy  of  Caesar  the  incense  due  from  my  grateful 
hand.  Would  that  Memnon's  mother,1  when  the 
Prince  is  softened,  might  with  rosy  lips  call  forth  this 
day  as  soon  as  may  be  ! 


V.  To  MAXIMUS 

Tis  he  who  was  once  not  last  among  your  friends 
— 'tis  Naso,  asks  you,  Maximus,  to  read  his  words. 
Seek  not  in  them  my  native  wit  lest  you  seem  unaware 
of  my  banishment.  You  see  how  inactivity  spoils  an 
idle  body,  how  water  acquires  a  taint  unless  it  is  in 
motion.  For  me,  too,  whatever  skill  I  had  in  shaping 
song  is  failing,  diminished  by  inactive  sloth.  Even 
this  that  you  read,  Maximus,  if  in  anything  you 
believe  me,  I  write  forcing  it  with  difficulty  from  an 
unwilling  hand.  There  is  no  pleasure  in  straining 
the  mind  to  such  a  task,  nor  does  the  Muse  come  at 
one's  call  to  the  stern  Getae.  Yet,  as  you  see,  I  am 
struggling  to  weave  verses,  but  the  fabric  is  not 
softer  than  my  fate.  When  I  read  it  over  I  am 
ashamed  of  my  work  because  I  note  many  a  thing 
that  even  in  my  own,  the  maker's  judgment,  deserves 
to  be  erased.  Yet  I  do  not  correct  it.  This  is  a 
greater  labour  than  the  writing,  and  my  sick  mind 
has  not  the  power  to  endure  anything  hard.  Am 
I  forsooth  to  use  the  file  more  bitingly,  subjecting 
single  words  to  criticism  ?  Does  fortune  indeed 

1  Aurora. 

291 


OVID 

torquet  enim  fortuna  parum,  nisi  Lixus  in  Hebrum 

confluat,  et  frondes  Alpibus  addat  Atho l  ? 
parcendum  est  animo  miserabile  vulnus  habenti. 

subducunt  oneri  colla  perusta  boves. 
25  at,  puto,  fructus  adest,  iustissima  causa  laborum, 

et  sata  cum  multo  faenore  reddit  ager  ? 
tempus  ad  hoc  no  bis,  repetas  licet  omnia,  nullum 

profuit — atque  utinam  non  nocuisset  ! — opus, 
cur  igitur  scribam,  miraris  ?     miror  et  ipse, 
30      et  tecum  quaero  saepe  quid  inde  petam. 
an  populus  vere  sanos  negat  esse  poetas, 

sumque  fides  huius  maxima  vocis  ego, 
qui,  sterili  totiens  cum  sim  deceptus  ab  arvo, 

damnosa  persto  condere  semen  humo  ? 
35  scilicet  est  cupidus  studiorum  quisque  suorum, 

tempus  et  adsueta  ponere  in  arte  iuvat. 
saucius  eiurat  pugnam  gladiator,  et  idem 

inmemor  antiqui  vulneris  arma  capit. 
nil  sibi  cum  pelagi  dicit  fore  naufragus  undis, 
40      et  ducit  remos  qua  modo  navit  aqua. 
sic  ego  constanter  studium  non  utile  servo, 

et  repeto,  nollem  quas  coluisse,  deas. 
quid  potius  faciam  ?  non  sum,  qui  segnia  ducam 

otia  :  mors  nobis  tempus  habetur  iners. 
45  nee  iuvat  in  lucem  nimio  marcescere  vino, 

nee  tenet  incertas  alea  blanda  manus. 
cum  dedimus  somno  quas  corpus  postulat  boras, 

quo  ponam  vigilans  tempora  longa  modo  ? 
moris  an  oblitus  patrii  contendere  discam 
60      Sarmaticos  arcus,  et  trahar  arte  loci  ? 

1  athos 
292 


EX  PONTO,  I.  v.  21-50 

torture  me  too  little  without  my  making  the  Lixus 
flow  into  the  Hebrus  and  Athos  add  leaves  to  the 
Alps  ?  One  must  spare  a  soul  that  has  a  wretched 
wound  ;  oxen  withdraw  their  chafed  necks  from  a 
burden.  "  But,"  I  suppose,  "  a  reward  is  at  hand,  the 
most  justifiable  reason  for  toil,  and  the  field  is  return- 
ing the  seed  with  much  usury  !  "  To  the  present  no 
work  of  mine,  though  you  enumerate  them  all,  has 
brought  me  profit — would  that  none  had  harmed 
me  ! 

29  Why  then  do  I  write,  you  wonder?  I  too  wonder, 
and  with  you  I  often  ask  what  I  seek  from  it.  Or  do 
the  people  say  true  that  poets  are  not  sane  and  am  I 
the  strongest  proof  of  this  maxim — I  who  though  so 
many  times  deceived  by  the  barrenness  of  the  soil, 
persist  in  sowing  my  seed  in  ground  that  ruins  me  ? 
Clearly  each  man  shows  a  passion  for  his  own  pursuits, 
taking  pleasure  in  devoting  time  to  his  familiar  art. 
The  wounded  gladiator  forswears  the  fight,  yet  for- 
getting his  former  wound  he  dons  his  arms.  The 
shipwrecked  man  declares  that  he  will  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  waves  of  the  sea,  yet  plies  the  oar  in 
the  water  in  which  but  recently  he  swam.  In  the 
same  way  I  continually  hold  to  a  profitless  pursuit, 
returning  to  the  goddesses  whom  I  would  I  had  not 
worshipped.  What  rather  shall  I  do  ?  I  am  not  one 
to  lead  a  life  of  idle  leisure  ;  I  regard  idleness  as 
death.  I  take  no  pleasure  in  steeping  myself  in 
wine  until  daylight,  and  the  alluring  dice  attract 
not  my  shaking  hands.  WThen  I  have  devoted  to 
sleep  what  hours  my  frame  demands,  how  am  I  to 
spend  the  long  period  of  wakefulness  ?  Forgetting 
the  ways  of  my  native  land  shall  I  learn  how  to  bend 
the  Sarmatian  bow,  attracted  by  the  accomplishment 

293 


OVID 

hoc  quoque  me  studium  prohibent  adsumere  vires, 

mensque  magis  gracili  corpore  nostra  valet, 
cum  bene  quaesieris  quid  agam,  magis  utile  nil  est 

artibus  his,  quae  nil  utilitatis  habent. 
65  consequor  ex  illis  casus  oblivia  nostri : 

hanc  messem  satis  est  si  mea  reddit  humus, 
gloria  vos  acuat,  vos,  ut  recitata  probentur 

carmina,  Pieriis  invigilate  choris. 
quod  venit  ex  facili,  satis  est  componere  nobis, 
60      et  nimis  intenti  causa  laboris  abest. 
cur  ego  sollicita  poliam  mea  carmina  cura  ? 

an  verear  ne  non  approbet  ilia  Getes  ? 
forsitan  audacter  faciam,  sed  glorior  Histrum 

ingenio  nullum  maius  habere  meo. 
65  hoc,  ubi  vivendum  est,  satis  est,  si  consequor  arvo, 

inter  inhumanos  esse  poeta  Getas. 
quo  mihi  diversum  fama  contendere  in  orbem  ? 

quern  fortuna  dedit,  Roma  sit  ille  locus, 
hoc  mea  contenta  est  infelix  Musa  theatre  : 
70      sic  merui,  magni  sic  voluere  dei. 

nee  reor  hinc  istuc  nostris  iter  esse  libellis, 

quo  Boreas  pinna  deficiente  venit. 
dividimur  caelo,  quaeque  est  procul  urbe  Quirini, 

aspicit  hirsutos  comminus  Ursa  Getas. 
76  per  tantum  terrae,  tot  aquas  vix  credere  possum 

indicium  studii  transiluisse  mei. 
finge  legi,  quodque  est  mirabile,  tinge  placere  : 

auctorem  certe  res  iuvat  ista  nihil. 
quid  tibi,  si  calidae,  prosit,  laudere  Syenae,1 
80      aut  ubi  Taprobanen  Indica  tinguit  aqua  ? 

1  calidae  .  .  .  syene  etc.  corr.  Riese 
294 


EX  PONTO,  I.  v.  51-80 

of  the  country  ?  Even  this  pursuit  my  strength 
prevents  me  from  adopting,  for  my  mind  is  stronger 
than  my  slender  body. 

63  When  you  have  pondered  well  what  I  am  to  do, 
nothing  is  more  useful  than  this  art  which  has  no  use. 
From  it  I  win  forgetfulness  of  my  misfortune  ;  this 
harvest  is  enough  if  my  ground  but  yields  it.  As 
for  you — your  goad  may  be  renown  ;  to  read  your 
poems  and  win  approval,  devote  your  wakeful  hours 
to  the  Pierian  band.  Tis  enough  for  me  to  compose 
what  comes  easily  ;  I  lack  a  reason  for  too  earnest 
toil.  Why  should  I  refine  my  verse  with  anxious 
labour  ?  Should  I  fear  that  the  Getan  will  not 
approve  them  ?  Perchance  'tis  bold  of  me,  and  yet 
I  boast  that  the  Hister  has  no  greater  talent  than 
mine.  In  this  land  where  I  must  live  'tis  enough  if  I 
succeed  in  being  a  poet  among  the  uncivilized  Getae. 
Why  should  I  attempt  to  reach  with  fame  the  opposite 
side  of  the  world  ?  Let  that  place  be  Rome  which 
fortune  has  given  me.  With  this  theatre  my  un- 
happy Muse  is  content :  so  have  I  deserved,  so  have 
the  great  gods  willed. 

71  And  I  think  that  my  books  cannot  journey  from 
this  place  to  your  region  whither  Boreas  comes  on 
failing  wing.  We  are  separated  by  the  heavens' 
space,  and  the  She  Bear  who  is  far  from  the  city  of 
Quirinus  gazes  close  at  hand  upon  the  shaggy  Getae. 
Over  so  vast  a  stretch  of  land,  so  many  waters  I  can 
scarce  believe  it  possible  that  a  hint  of  my  work  has 
leaped.  Suppose  it  is  read,  and — marvellous  indeed 
— suppose  it  finds  favour;  that  fact  surely  helps  its 
author  not  at  all.  What  profit  to  you  if  you  should 
be  praised  in  hot  Syene,1  or  where  the  Indian  waves 

1  Assuan,  far  up  the  Nile  at  the  bounds  of  the  empire. 

295 


OVID 

altius  ire  libet  ?  si  te  distantia  longe 

Pleiadum  laudent  signa,  quid  inde  feras  ? 
sed  neque  pervenio  scriptis  mediocribus  istuc, 

famaque  cum  domino  fugit  ab  urbe  suo. 
85  vosque,  quibus  perii,  tune  cum  mea  fama  sepulta  est, 
nunc  quoque  de  nostra  morte  tacere  reor. 

VI. 

Ecquid,  ut  audisti — nam  te  diversa  tenebat 

terra — meos  casus,  cor  tibi  triste  fuit  ? 
dissimules  metuasque  licet,  Graecine,  fateri, 

si  bene  te  novi,  triste  fuisse  liquet. 
5  non  cadit  in  mores  feritas  inamabilis  istos, 

nee  minus  a  studiis  dissidet  ilia  tuis. 
artibus  ingenuis,  quarum  tibi  maxima  cura  est, 

pectora  mollescunt  asperitasque  fugit. 
nee  quisquam  meliore  fide  complectitur  illas, 
10      qua  sinit  officium  militiaeque  labor. 

certe  ego  cum  primum  potui  sentire  quid  esscm 

— nam  fuit  attoniti l  mens  mea  nulla  diu — 
hoc  quoque  fortunam  2  sensi,  quod  amicus  abesses, 

qui  mihi  praesidium  grande  futurus  eras. 
16  tecum  tune  aberant  aegrae  solacia  mentis, 

magnaque  pars  animi  consiliique  mei. 
at  nunc,  quod  superest,  fer  opem,  precor,  eminus 

unam, 

adloquioque  iuva  pectora  nostra  tuo, 
quae,  non  mendaci  si  quicquam  credis  amico, 
20      stulta  magis  dici  quam  scelerata  decet. 
nee  breve  nee  tutum  peccati  quae  sit  origo 
scribere  ;  tractari  vulnera  nostra  timent. 

1  attonito  corr.  Ehwald  2  fortunae  <r 

1  Perhaps  Ceylon. 
296 


EX  PONTO,  I.  v.  81— vi.  22 

dye  Tabropanes  x  ?  Would  you  go  further  ?  If  the 
far  distant  stars  of  the  Pleiads  should  praise  you,  what 
would  you  gain  ?  But  I  do  not  penetrate  by  virtue 
of  my  commonplace  writings  to  that  place  of  yours  ; 
the  author's  fame  was  banished  with  him  from  his  own 
city.  And  you  in  whose  eyes  I  died  when  my  fame 
was  buried,  now  also,  I  think,  are  silent  about  my 
death.2 

VI.  To  GRAECINUS 

Is  it  true  that  when  you  heard  of  my  disaster.,  for 
you  were  then  in  a  different  land,  your  heart  was  sad  ? 
You  may  try  to  hide  it  and  shrink  from  the  admission, 
Graecinus,  but  if  I  know  you  well,  'tis  certain  it  was 
sad.  Revolting  cruelty  does  not  square  with  your 
character  and  is  no  less  at  variance  with  your  pur- 
suits. The  liberal  arts,  for  which  you  care  above  all 
things,  soften  the  heart  arid  expel  harshness.  No- 
body embraces  them  with  greater  faith  than  you — 
so  far  as  duty  and  the  toil  of  a  soldier's  life  permit. 
For  mv  part  as  soon  as  I  realized  what  I  was — for  long 
was  I  stunned  and  had  no  powers  of  thought — I  felt 
in  this  also  my  fate  that  you,  my  friend,  were  absent, 
— you  who  were  sure  to  be  my  great  support.  With 
you  at  that  time  were  absent  all  that  solaces  a  sick 
mind,  and  a  great  part  of  my  courage  and  my  counsel. 

17  But  as  it  is,  for  this  alone  remains,  bring  me  one 
aid,  I  beseech  you,  from  afar  ;  help  with  your  com- 
forting words  a  heart  which,  if  you  believe  at  all  a 
friend  who  does  not  lie,  should  be  called  foolish  rather 
than  wicked.  It  would  be  long  and  not  safe  to  tell 
the  story  of  my  sin,  and  my  wounds  fear  to  be 

a  i.e.  they  had  ceased  even  to  talk  about  his  living  death 
in  exile. 

297 


OVID 

qualicumque  modo  mihi  sunt 1  ea  facta,  rogare 

desine  :  non  agites,  siqua  coire  veils. 
25  quicquid  id  est,  ut  non  facinus,  sic  culpa  vocanda 

est. 

omnis  an  in  magnos  culpa  deos  scelus  est  ? 
spes  igitur  menti  poenae,  Graecine,  levandae 

non  est  ex  toto  nulla  relicta  meae. 
haec  dea,  cum  fugerent  sceleratas  numina  terras, 
30      in  dis  invisa  sola  remansit  humo. 

haec  facit  ut  vivat  fossor  quoque  compede  vinctus, 

liberaque  a  ferro  crura  futura  putet. 
haec  facit  ut,  videat  cum  terras  undique  nullas, 

naufragus  in  mediis  brachia  iactet  aquis. 
35  saepe  aliquem  sellers  medicorum  cura  reliquit, 

nee  spes  huic  vena  deficiente  cadit. 
carcere  dicuntur  clausi  sperare  salutem, 

atque  aliquis  pendens  in  cruce  vota  facit. 
haec  dea  quam  multos  laqueo  sua  colla  ligantis 
40      non  est  proposita  passa  perire  nece  ! 
me  quoque  conantem  gladio  finire  dolorem 

arguit  iniecta  continuitque  manu, 
"  quid  "  que  "  facis  ?  lacrimis  opus  est,  non  sanguine" 

dixit, 

"  saepe  per  has  flecti  principis  ira  solet." 
46  quamvis  est  igitur  meritis  indebita  nostris, 

magna  tamen  spes  est  in  bonitate  dei. 
qui  ne  difficilis  mihi  sit,  Graecine,  precare, 

confer  et  in  votum  tu  quoque  verba  meum. 
inque  Tomitana  iaceam  tumulatus  harena, 
50      si  te  non  nobis  ista  vovere  liquet. 

nam  prius  incipient  turris  vitare  columbae, 
antra  ferae,  pecudes  gramina,  mergus  aquas, 

1  sint  corr.  Ehwald 
298 


EX  PONTO,  I.  vi.  23-52 

touched.  However  I  came  by  those  wounds,  cease 
to  ask  about  them  :  disturb  them  not,  if  you  wish 
them  to  heal.  Whatever  that  is,  though  it  does  not 
deserve  the  term  "  crime,"  yet  it  should  be  called  a 
"  fault."  Or  is  every  fault  against  the  great  gods  a 
crime  ? 

27  Hope  therefore  of  lessening  my  punishment, 
Graecinus,  has  not  altogether  forsaken  my  soul. 
That  goddess,  when  all  other  deities  abandoned  the 
wicked  earth,  remained  alone  on  the  god-detested 
place.  She  causes  even  the  ditcher  to  live  in  spite  of 
his  shackles  and  to  think  that  his  limbs  will  be  freed 
from  the  iron.  She  makes  the  shipwrecked  man,  see- 
ing no  land  on  any  side,  move  his  arms  in  the  midst  of 
the  waves.  Oft  has  a  man  been  abandoned  by  the 
skill  and  care  of  physicians,  but  hope  leaves  him  not 
though  his  pulses  fail.  Those  who  are  shut  in  prison 
hope  for  release,  they  say,  and  many  a  one  hanging 
on  the  cross  still  prays.  How  many  this  goddess  has 
prevented  in  the  act  of  fastening  the  noose  about 
their  throats  from  perishing  by  the  death  they  had 
purposed  !  Me  also  as  I  was  attempting  to  end  my 
grief  with  the  sword  she  rebuked,  checking  me  with 
a  touch  of  her  hand  and  saying,  "  What  are  you 
about  ?  There  is  need  of  tears,  not  blood  ;  often  by 
tears  the  wrath  of  a  prince  may  be  turned  aside." 
And  so  although  I  do  not  deserve  it,  yet  I  have 
strong  hope  in  the  kindness  of  the  god.  Pray, 
Graecinus,  that  he  be  not  hard  for  me  to  win  ;  add 
too  some  words  of  your  own  to  my  supplication. 
May  I  lie  entombed  in  the  sands  of  Tomis  if  it  is 
not  clear  that  you  are  a  suppliant  in  my  behalf. 
For  sooner  will  the  pigeons  avoid  the  towers,  the  wild 
beasts  the  forest  glades,  the  cattle  the  grass,  and  the 

299 


OVID 

quam  male  se  praestet  veteri  Graecinus  amico. 
non  ita  sunt  fatis  omnia  versa  meis. 


VII. 

Littera  pro  verbis  tibi,  Messaline,  salutem 

quam  legis,  a  saevis  attulit  usque  Getis. 
indicat  auctorem  locus  ?   an,  nisi  nomine  lecto, 

haec  me  Nasonem  scribere  verba  latet  ? 
6  ecquis  in  extreme  positus  iacet  orbe  tuorum, 

me  tamen  excepto,  qui  precor  esse  tuus  ? 
di  procul  a  cunctis,  qui  te  venerantur  amantque 

huius  notitiam  gentis  habere  l  velint. 
nos  satis  est  inter  glaciem  Scythicasque  sagittas 
10      vivere,  si  vita  est  mortis  habenda  genus, 
nos  premat  aut  bello  tellus,  aut  frigore  caelum, 

truxque  Getes  armis,  grandine  pugnet 2  hiems  : 
nos  habeat  regio  nee  porno  feta  nee  uvis, 

et  cuius  nullum  cesset  ab  hoste  latus. 
15  cetera  sit  sospes  cultorum  turba  tuorum, 

in  quibus,  ut  populo,  pars  ego  parva  fui. 
me  miserum,  si  tu  verbis  offenderis  istis 

nosque  negas  ulla  parte  fuisse  tuos  ! 
idque  sit  ut  verum,  mentito  ignoscere  debes  : 
20      nil  demit  laudi  gloria  nostra  tuae. 

quis  se  Caesaribus  notus  non  fingit  amicum  ? 

da  veniam  lasso  :  tu  mihi  Caesar  eras.3 
nee  tamen  inrumpo  quo  non  licet  ire,  satisque  est 

atria  si  nobis  non  patuisse  negas. 

1  abesse  a  pulset  S"  8  eris 

300 


EX  PONTO,  I.  vi.  53— vn.  24 

gull  the  waters  than  Graecinus  will  weakly  support 
an  old  friend.  Not  so  utterly  have  all  things  been 
changed  by  my  fate. 

VII.  To  MESSALINUS 

Letters,  instead  of  spoken  words,  Messalinus,  have 
brought  you  the  greeting  which  you  read  all  the  way 
from  the  fierce  Getae.  Is  the  place  a  token  of  the 
author  ?  Or  unless  you  have  read  the  name  are  you 
unaware  that  I  who  write  these  words  am  Naso  ? 
Does  any  one  of  your  friends  except  myself — who 
pray  that  I  am  your  friend — lie  at  the  very  edge  of 
the  world  ?  May  the  gods  will  that  all  who  show  you 
respect  and  love  may  have  no  knowledge  of  this  race  ! 
Enough  that  /  should  live  midst  ice  and  Scythian 
arrows — if  a  kind  of  death  must  be  considered  life. 
Let  me  be  hard  pressed  by  war  on  the  earth  or  by 
the  chill  of  heaven,  the  wild  Getae  fighting  with  arms 
and  the  winter  with  its  hail ;  let  me  be  held  in  a 
country  that  produces  neither  fruit  nor  grape,  that 
has  no  side  free  from  an  enemy  :  but  safe  be  all  the 
other  throng  of  your  clients,  among  whom,  as  mid  a 
host,  I  was  but  one  of  many.  Alas  for  me  if  you  take 
offence  at  such  words  as  these  and  deny  that  I  have 
been  connected  with  you  in  any  respect.  For  even 
though  that  were  true,  you  ought  to  pardon  my  false- 
hood ;  your  praise  loses  nothing  through  this  boast 
of  mine.  What  acquaintance  of  the  Caesars  does 
not  imagine  himself  a  friend  !  Pardon  me  the  con- 
fession ;  you  have  ever  been  in  my  eyes  a  Caesar. 
And  yet  I  do  not  force  my  way  where  I  am  not  allowed 
to  go,  and  'tis  enough  if  you  do  not  deny  that  your 
halls  were  open  to  me.  Though  you  had  nothing 

301 


OVID 

25  utque  tibi  fuerit  mecum  nihil  amplius,  uno 
nempe  salutaris,  quam  priiis,  ore  minus, 
nee  tuus  est  genitor  nos  infitiatus  amicos, 

hortator  studii  causaque  faxque  mei  : 
cui  nos  et  lacrimas,  supremum  in  funere  munus, 
30      et  dedimus  medio  scrip ta  canenda  foro. 
adde  quod  est  frater,  tanto  tibi  iunctus  amore, 

quantus  in  Atridis  Tyndaridisque  fuit : 
is  me  nee  comitem  nee  dedignatus  amicum  est : 

si  tamen  haec  illi  non  nocitura  putas. 
36  si  minus,  hac  quoque  me  mendacem  parte  fatebor  : 

clausa  mihi  potius  tota  sit  ista  domus. 
sed  neque  claudenda  est,  et  nulla  potentia  vires 

praestandi,  ne  quid  peccet  amicus,  habet. 
et  tamen  ut  cuperem  culpam  quoque  posse  negari, 
40      sic  facinus  nemo  nescit  abesse  mihi. 
quod  nisi  delicti  pars  excusabilis  esset, 

parva  relegari  poena  futura  fuit. 
ipse  sed  hoc  vidit,  qui  pervidet  omnia,  Caesar, 

stultitiam  dici  crimina  posse  mea  : 
45  quaque  ego  permisi,  quaque  est  res  passa,  pepercit, 

usus  et  est  modice  fulminis  igne  sui. 
nee  vitam  nee  opes  nee  ademit  posse  reverti, 

si  sua  per  vestras  victa  sit  ira  preces. 
at  graviter  cecidi.     quid  enim  mirabile,  si  quis 
60      a  love  percussus  non  leve  vulnus  habet  ? 
ipse  suas  etiam  x  vires  inhiberet  Achilles, 

missa  gravis  ictus  Pelias  hasta  dabat. 
iudicium  nobis  igitur  cum  vindicis  adsit, 
non  est  cur  tua  me  ianua  nosse  neget. 
65  culta  quidem,  fateor,  citra  quam  debuit,  ilia  est : 
sed  fuit  in  fatis  hoc  quoque,  credo,  meis. 

1  etiam]  quamvis 
302 


EX  PONTO,  I.  vii.  25-56 

more  to  do  with  me,  surely  you  are  saluted  by  one 
voice  less  than  of  old.  Your  father  did  not  deny  my 
friendship,  he  who  was  at  once  the  encourager,  the 
cause,  and  the  guiding  light  of  my  pursuit.  For  him 
I  gave  tears  which  are  the  final  meed  of  death,  and 
I  wrote  verses  to  be  chanted  in  the  midst  of  the  forum. 
You  have  also  a  brother  united  to  you  with  as  great 
a  love  as  that  which  joined  the  Atridae1  or  the 
Tyndaridae  2  :  he  has  not  disdained  me  as  companion 
or  as  friend,  yet  only  if  you  deem  these  words  will 
not  harm  him.  Else  will  I  confess  a  falsehood  in  this 
particular  also  ;  rather  let  that  whole  house  be  closed 
to  me.  Yet  it  ought  not  to  be  closed  to  me,  for  no 
power  has  strength  to  guarantee  that  a  friend  will 
do  no  wrong.  And  yet  even  as  I  could  crave  the 
power  to  deny  my  fault,  so  everybody  knows  that 
mine  is  no  crime.  And  unless  a  part  of  my  sin  were 
pardonable,  exile  would  have  been  a  small  punish- 
ment. But  he  himself  saw  this,  he  who  sees  all 
things — Caesar — that  my  crimes  might  be  termed 
folly.  So  far  as  I  permitted,  so  far  as  circum- 
stances allowed,  he  spared  me,  making  but  a  mild 
use  of  his  flaming  thunderbolt.  He  took  from  me 
neither  life  nor  property  nor  the  possibility  of  return — 
if  his  wrath  should  be  conquered  by  your  prayers. 

49  Yet  heavy  was  my  fall.  What  wonder  if  one 
smitten  by  Jupiter  has  no  slight  wound  ?  Even 
should  Achilles  restrain  his  power,  the  Pelian  spear 
he  hurled  dealt  heavy  strokes.  Inasmuch  then  as  I 
have  the  judgment  of  him  who  punishes  me  in  my 
favour,  there  is  no  reason  why  your  doorway  should 
deny  knowledge  of  me.  I  admit  I  paid  less  court 
to  it  than  I  ought,  but  that  too  was  fated  for  me,  I 

1  Agamemnon  and  Menelaus.  *  Castor  and  Pollux. 

303 


OVID 

nee  tamen  officium  sensit  domus  altera  nostrum 

sic :  illic 1  vestro  sub  Lare  semper  eram. 
quaeque  tua  est  pietas,  ut  te  non  excolat  ipsum, 
60      ius  aliquod  tecum  fratris  amicus  habet. 

quid  quod,  ut  emeritis  referenda  est  gratia  semper, 

sic  est  fortunae  promeruisse  tuae  ? 
quod  si  permittis  nobis  suadere  quid  optes, 

ut  des  quam  reddas  plura  precare  deos. 
65  idque  facis,  quantumque  licet  meminisse,  solebas 

officii  causae  2  pluribus  esse  datis.3 
quo  libet  in  numero  me,  Messaline,  repone, 
sim  modo  pars  vestrae  non  aliena  domus  : 
et  mala  Nasonem,  quoniam  meruisse  videtur, 
70      si  non  ferre  doles,  at  meruisse  dole. 

VIII. 

A  tibi  dilecto  missam  Nasone  salutem 

accipe,  pars  animae  magna,  Severe,  meae. 
neve  roga  quid  agam.     si  persequar  omnia,  flebis  ; 

summa  satis  nostri  si 4  tibi  nota  mali. 
5  vivimus  assiduis  expert es  pacis  in  armis, 

dura  pharetrato  bella  movente  Geta. 
deque  tot  expulsis  sum  miles  in  exule  solus  : 

tuta,  neque  invideo,  cetera  turba  latet. 
quoque  magis  nostros  venia  dignere  libellos, 
10      haec  in  procinctu  carmina  facta  leges, 
stat  vetus  urbs,  ripae  vicina  binominis  Histri, 

moenibus  et  positu  vix  adeunda  loci. 

1  hie  illic  :  sic  Ehwald.  ;  punct.  A.  L.  W. 

2  causa  vet  causam  corr.  Purser 
9  dari  vel  dati :  datis  Owen  4  sit 


1  i.e.  the  house  of  your  brother  (Cotta  Maxiinus). 
2  Noblesse  oblige. 

304 


EX  PONTO,  I.  vii.  57— vin.  12 

believe.  Yet  the  other  house1  did  not  experience  my 
attentions  thus  :  in  that  I  was  constantly  beneath 
the  protection  of  your  common  Lar,  and  such  is  your 
loyalty  that  though  he  court  not  you  in  person,  your 
brother's  friend  has  on  you  some  claim.  What  too 
of  this  that  as  thanks  should  be  rendered  to  those  who 
have  done  service  so  it  becomes  your  position  to 
deserve  them  ?  2  And  if  you  permit  us  to  advise  what 
you  should  desire,  pray  that  you  may  give  more  than 
you  repay.  This  you  are  doing  and,  as  I  remember, 
you  used  to  be  a  source  of  attention  because  you  gave 
more  yourself.  In  whatever  class  you  will,  Messa- 
linus,  place  me,  if  only  I  be  no  alien  member  of 
your  household.  As  for  Naso's  misfortunes — since  it 
seems  that  he  has  deserved  them — if  you  are  not 
grieved  that  he  endures  them,  yet  grieve  that  he  has 
deserved  them. 

VIII.  To  SEVERUS 

Severus,  my  soul's  larger  part,  receive  the  greeting 
sent  by  Naso  whom  you  used  to  love,  nor  ask  how  I 
fare.  Should  I  tell  the  whole  tale,  it  will  bring  you 
tears  ;  'tis  enough  if  you  know  the  sum  of  my 
misfortune.  I  live  deprived  of  peace  amid  constant 
strife  while  the  quiver-bearing  Getan  rouses  stern  war. 
Of  so  many  exiled  I  alone  am  both  exile  and  soldier  ; 
the  rest — nor  do  I  grudge  it  them — are  safe  in  their 
retirement.  And  that  you  may  grant  my  work 
greater  indulgence,  you  will  read  here  verses  com- 
posed on  the  field  of  battle.  An  old  city3  lies  hard 
by  the  bank  of  Hister  of  the  double  name,  scarce 
accessible  because  of  its  walls  and  the  site.  Aegisos, 

8  Aegisos,  cf.  Ex  P.  iv.  7.  21  and  53.  The  Danube  had  a 
"double  name":  Hister  and  Danuvius. 

X  305 


OVID 

Caspios  Aegisos,  de  se  si  credimus  ipsis, 
condidit,  et  proprio  nomine  dixit  opus. 
15  hanc  ferus,  Odrysiis  inopino  Marte  peremptis, 

cepit  et  in  regem  sustulit  arma  Getes. 
ille  memor  magni  generis,  virtute  quod  auget, 

protinus  innumero  milite  cinctus  adest. 
nee  prius  abscessit,  merita  quam  caede  nocentum 
20      audaces  animos  contuderat l  populi.2 
at  tibi,  rex  aevo,  detur,  fortissime  nostro, 
semper  honorata  sceptra  tenere  manu. 
teque,    quod   et   praestat — quid    enim   tibi   plenius 

optem  ? 

Martia  cum  magno  Caesare  Roma  probet. 
25  sed  memor  unde  abii,  queror,  o  iucunde  sodalis, 

accedant 3  nostris  saeva  quod  arma  malis. 
ut  careo  vobis,  Stygias  4  detrusus  in  oras, 

quattuor  autumnos  Plei'as  orta  facit. 
nee  tu  credideris  urbanae  commoda  vitae 
30      quaerere  Nasonem,  quaerit  et  ilia  tamen. 
nam  modo  vos  animo  dulces  reminiscor,  amici, 

nunc  mihi  cum  cara  coniuge  nata  subit  : 
aque  domo  rursus  pulchrae  loca  vertor  ad  urbis, 

cunctaque  mens  oculis  pervidet  usa  suis. 
35  nunc  fora,  nunc  aedes,  nunc  marmore  tecta  theatra, 

nunc  subit  aequata  porticus  omnis  humo. 
gramina  nunc  Campi  pulchros  spectantis  in  hortos, 
stagnaque  et  euripi  Virgineusque  liquor. 

1  contuderit  DC :  corr.  Riese  2  Versum  om.  AB 

9  accedunt  4  scylhicas 

306 


EX  PONTO,  I.  vni.   13-38 

the  Caspian,  if  we  may  believe  the  native  tale, 
founded  it  and  gave  it  his  own  name.  The  wild 
Getae  took  it  after  they  had  destroyed  the  Odrysii 
in  a  warfare  of  surprise,  and  raised  their  arms  against 
the  king.  He,  mindful  of  the  mighty  race  which  his 
own  valour  enhances,  at  once  approached  with  a 
following  of  countless  warriors.  Nor  did  he  depart 
until  with  deserved  slaughter  of  the  guilty  he  beat 
down  the  presumptuous  spirit  of  the  people.  May 
it  be  granted  thee,  bravest  monarch  of  our  time,  ever 
to  sway  the  sceptre  with  thy  honoured  hand.  Mayst 
thou,  even  as  she  grants  it  now — for  what  fuller 
prayer  could  I  make  for  thee — find  approval  with 
warlike  Rome  along  with  mighty  Caesar. 

25  But  mindful  of  my  beginning,  my  dear  comrade, 
I  complain  of  the  addition  of  cruel  warfare  to  my 
misfortunes.  Since  I  have  been  separated  from  you, 
thrust  down  to  the  very  shores  of  the  Styx,  the  rising 
of  the  Pleiads  is  now  bringing  on  the  fourth  autumn. 
Yet  believe  not  thou  that  'tis  the  joys  of  city  life 
that  Naso  seeks — and  yet  even  them  he  seeks — for 
at  times  I  have  memories  of  you,  my  pleasant  friends, 
at  times  thoughts  of  my  daughter  and  my  dear  wife 
steal  over  me,  and  from  my  own  house  I  am  once 
again  visiting  the  localities  of  the  beautiful  town,  my 
mino^  surveying  everything  with  eyes  of  its  own. 
Now  the  fora,  now  the  temples,  now  the  theatres 
sheathed  in  marble,  now  every  portico  with  its 
levelled  ground  comes  before  me  ;  now  the  green- 
sward of  the  Campus  that  looks  towards  the  lovely 
gardens,  the  pools,  the  canals,  and  the  water  of  the 
Virgo.1 


1  The  aqueduct  Virgo,  cf.  Tr.  iii.  12.  22. 


307 


OVID 

at,  puto,  sic  urbis  misero  est  erepta  voluptas, 
40      quolibet  ut  saltern  rure  frui  liceat  ! 
non  meus  amissos  animus  desiderat  agros, 

ruraque  Paeligno  conspicienda  solo, 
nee  quos  piniferis  positos  in  collibus  hortos 

spectat  Flaminiae  Clodia  iuncta  viae. 
45  quos  ego  nescio  cui  colui,  quibus  ipse  solebam 

ad  sata  fontanas,  nee  pudet,  adder e  aquas  : 
sunt  ubi,1  si  vivunt,  nostra  quoque  consita  quaedam, 

sed  non  et  nostra  poma  legenda  manu. 
pro  quibus  amissis  utinam  contingere  possit 
60      hie  saltern  profugo  glaeba  colenda  mihi  ! 
ipse  ego  pendentis,  liceat  modo,  rupe  capellas, 

ipse  velim  baculo  pascere  nixus  oves  ; 
ipse  ego,  ne  solitis  insistant  pectora  curis, 

ducam  ruricolas  sub  iuga  curva  boves, 
65  et  discam  Getici  quae  norunt  verba  iuvenci, 

adsuetas  illis  acticiamque  minas. 
ipse  manu  capulum  pressi  moderatus  aratri 

experiar  mota  spargere  semen  humo. 
nee  dubitem  longis  purgare  ligonibus  herbas, 
60      et  dare  iam  sitiens  quas  bibat  hortus  aquas, 
unde  sed  hoc  nobis,  minimum  quos  inter  et  hostem 

discrimen  murus  clausaque  porta  facit  ? 
at  tibi  nascenti,  quod  toto  pectore  laetor, 

nerunt  fatales  fortia  fila  deae. 
65  te  modo  Campus  habet,  densa  modo  porticus  umbra 

nunc,  in  quo  ponis  tempora  rara,  forum. 
Umbria  nunc  revocat,  nee  non  Albana  petentem 

Appia  ferventi  ducit  in  arva  rota. 

1  ibi 

1  Probably  an  estate  near  Alba. 
308 


EX  PONTO,  I.  vni.  39-68 

39  But,  I  suppose,  the  delights  of  the  city  have  been 
taken  from  me  in  my  wretchedness  in  such  fashion 
that  I  may  have  at  least  what  country  joys  I  will ! 
It  is  not  for  the  fields  lost  to  me  that  my  heart 
longs,  the  fair  lands  in  the  Paelignian  country,  nor 
for  those  gardens  lying  on  the  pine-clad  hills  which 
the  Clodian  and  Flaminian  roads  survey — them  I 
tilled  for  I  know  not  whom,  in  them  I  used  in  person 
to  guide  (nor  am  I  ashamed  to  say  it)  the  spring 
water  upon  the  plants ;  somewhere,  if  they  still 
live,  there  are  certain  trees  also  planted  by  my  hand, 
but  never  is  my  hand  destined  to  gather  their  fruit. 
For  all  these  losses  would  that  it  could  be  my  lot 
even  here  to  have  in  my  exile  a  plot  to  till !  I  would 
in  person,  if  only  I  might,  pasture  the  goats  as  they 
hang  upon  the  crags,  I  would  pasture  the  sheep  as  I 
leaned  upon  my  staff ;  that  my  breast  might  not 
dwTell  upon  its  usual  cares  I  would  myself  lead  the 
plough  -  oxen  beneath  the  curving  yoke,  teaching 
myself  the  words  which  the  Getic  bullocks  know, 
hurling  at  them  the  familiar  threats.  In  person 
would  I  control  the  handle  of  the  down-pressed 
plough  and  try  to  scatter  seed  in  the  furrowed  earth. 
I  would  not  shrink  from  clearing  away  the  weeds 
with  the  long  hoe  and  supplying  the  water  for  the 
thirsty  garden  to  drink.  But  whence  shall  all  this 
come  to  me  between  whom  and  the  enemy  there  is 
only  the  breadth  of  a  wall  and  a  closed  gate  ?  For 
you  at  birth — my  whole  heart  rejoices  at  this — the 
fateful  goddesses  spun  strong  threads.  You  may 
stroll  now  in  the  Campus,  now  in  the  dusky  shade  of 
some  portico,  now  in  the  forum,  though  you  spend  but 
little  time  there  ;  Umbria  now  calls  you  home,  or  as 
you  seek  your  Albana,1  the  Appian  road  takes  you 

309 


OVID 

forsitan  hie  optes,  ut  iustam  supprimat  iram 
70      Caesar,  et  hospitium  sit  tua  villa  meum. 

a !  nimium  est,  quod,  amice,  petis  :  moderatius  opta, 

et  voti  quaeso  contrahe  vela  tui. 
terra  velim  propior  nullique  obnoxia  bello 

detur  :  erit l  nostris  pars  bona  dempta  malis. 


IX. 

Quae  mihi  de  rapto  tua  2  venit  epistula  Celso, 

protinus  est  lacrimis  umida  facta  meis  ; 
quodque  nefas  dictu,  fieri  nee  posse  putavi, 

invitis  oculis  littera  lecta  tua  est. 
6  nee  quicquam  ad  nostras  pervenit  acerbius  aures, 

ut  sumus  in  Ponto,  perveniatque  precor. 
ante  meos  oculos  tamquam  praesentis  imago 

haeret,  et  extinctum  vivere  fmgit  amor, 
saepe  refert  animus  lusus  gravitate  carentes, 
10      seria  cum  liquida  saepe  peracta  fide. 

nulla  tamen  subeunt  mihi  tempora  densius  illis, 

quae  vellem  vitae  summa  fuisse  meae, 
cum  domus  ingenti  subito  mea  lapsa  ruina 

concidit  in  domini  procubuitque  caput. 
15  adfuit  ille  mihi,  cum  me  pars  magna  reliquit, 

Maxime,  fortunae  nee  fuit  ipse  comes, 
ilium  ego  non  aliter  flentem  mea  funera3  vidi, 

ponendus  quam  si  frater  in  igne  foret. 
haesit  in  amplexu  consolatusque  iacentem  est, 
20      cumque  meis  lacrimis  miscuit  usque  suas. 
o  quotiens  vitae  custos  invisus  amarae 

continuit  promptas  in  mea  fata  manus  ! 

1  erat  2  tua]  nunc  8  vulnera 

310 


EX  PONTO,  I.  vra.  69— ix.  22 

to  the  country  on  glowing  wheels.  There  perchance 
you  may  wish  that  Caesar  would  abate  his  just  wrath 
and  that  your  villa  may  entertain  me.  Alas  !  'tis 
too  much  that  you  ask,  my  friend  ;  utter  a  more 
modest  wish,  furl  the  sails  of  your  prayer,  I  beg. 
My  wish  is  for  a  land  nearer  home,  one  not  exposed 
to  war ;  then  a  large  part  of  my  woes  will  be 
removed. 


IX.  To  MAXIMUS 

Your  letter  with  its  news  of  Celsus*  death  was 
forthwith  wetted  by  my  tears  :  and  though  'tis  an 
impious  thing  to  say  and,  as  I  thought,  impossible,  a 
letter  of  yours  was  read  with  unwilling  eyes.  No- 
thing more  grievous  has  reached  my  ears  since  I  have 
been  in  the  Pontus,  and  I  pray  that  nothing  more 
bitter  will  come.  His  image  lingers  before  my  eyes 
as  if  he  were  present ;  he  is  gone,  but  love  imagines 
him  still  alive.  Often  my  heart  recalls  his  gaiety 
freed  from  solemnity,  often  his  serious  tasks  per- 
formed with  transparent  fidelity.  But  no  hours  come 
to  my  mind  more  frequently  than  those — would  they 
had  been  the  latest  of  my  life — when  my  house  on  a 
sudden  collapsed  in  utter  ruin  and  fell  upon  its 
master's  head.  He  stood  by  me  when  the  greater 
part  abandoned  me,  Maximus,  and  when  he  was  not  a 
partner  in  my  fate.  I  saw  him  weeping  my  death  as 
if  perforce  he  had  to  lay  his  own  brother  in  the  flames. 
He  clung  to  my  embrace,  he  consoled  me  as  I  lay 
prostrate,  he  mingled  his  tears  constantly  with  mine. 
How  often  did  he,  the  then  hated  guardian  of  my 
bitter  life,  check  the  hands  ready  to  bring  about  my 

311 


OVID 

o  quotiens  dixit  "  placabilis  ira  deorum  est : 

vive  nee  ignosci  tu  tibi  posse  nega  "  ! 
25  vox  tamen  ilia  fuit  celeberrima,  "  respice,  quantum 

debeat  auxilium  Maximus  esse  tibi. 
Maximus  incumbet,  quaque  est  pietate,  rogabit, 

ne  sit  ad  extremum  Caesaris  ira  tenax  ; 
cumque  suis  fratris  vires  adhibebit,  et  omnem, 
30      quo  levius  doleas,  experietur  opem." 

haec  mihi  verba  malae  minuerunt  taedia  vitae. 

quae  tu  ne  fuerint,  Maxime,  vana  cave, 
hue  quoque  venturum  mihi  se  iurare  solebat 

non  nisi  te  longae  ius  sibi  dante  viae. 
35  nam  tua  non  alio  coluit  penetralia  ritu, 

terrarum  dominos  quam  colis  ipse  deos. 
crede  mihi,  multos  habeas  cum  dignus  amicos, 

non  fuit  e  multis  quolibet  ille  minor, 
si  modo  non  census  nee  clarum  nomen  avorum 
40      sed  probitas  magnos  ingeniumque  facit. 
iure  igitur  lacrimas  Celso  libamus  adempto. 

cum  fugerem,  vivo  quas  dedit  ille  mihi : 
carmina  iure  damus  raros  testantia  mores, 

ut  tua  venturi  nomina,  Celse,  legant. 
45  hoc  est,  quod  possum l  Geticis  tibi  mittere  ab  arvis 

hoc  solum  est  istic  quod  licet  esse  meum. 
funera  non  potui  comitare  nee  ungere  corpus, 

aque  tuis  toto  dividor  orbe  rogis. 
qui  potuit,  quern  tu  pro  numine  vivus  habebas, 
50      praestitit  officium  Maximus  omne  tibi. 
ille  tibi  exequias  et  magni  funus  honoris 

fecit  et  in  gelidos  versit 2  amoma  sinus, 

1  possim  8  vertit  corr.  Heinsiua 

812 


EX  PONTO,  I.  ix.  23-52 

death  !  How  often  did  he  say,  "  The  wrath  of  the 
gods  may  be  appeased.  Live,  and  do  not  say  that 
you  cannot  be  pardoned  "  !  But  his  most  frequent 
words  were,  "  Think  how  great  a  help  Maximus 
ought  to  be  to  you.  Maximus  will  make  every  effort 
and,  such  is  his  loyalty,  will  beg  that  Caesar's  wrath 
persist  not  to  the  end.  Together  with  his  own 
power  he  will  employ  that  of  his  brother  ;  he  will  try 
every  resource  to  lighten  your  pain." 

31  These  words  diminished  the  weariness  I  felt  in  my 
unfortunate  life.  Maximus,  see  to  it  that  they  were 
not  empty.  He  was  wont  to  swear  that  he  would 
come  to  me  even  here  and  that  no  other  but  your- 
self would  afford  him  the  right  to  make  the  long 
journey.  For  he  revered  your  house  not  otherwise 
than  you  worship  the  gods  who  are  lords  of  the  world. 
Believe  me,  although  you  possess  deservedly  many 
friends,  he  was  in  no  degree  inferior  to  any  of  them, 
if  only  'tis  true  that  not  property  nor  the  illustrious 
names  of  ancestors,  but  uprightness  and  character 
render  men  great. 

41  Rightly  then  do  I  grant  the  meed  of  tears  to 
Celsus  dead  which  he  granted  to  me  in  life  as  I  set 
forth  to  exile.  Rightly  do  I  bestow  verses  bearing 
witness  to  a  rare  character  that  those  about  to  come 
may  read  of  thy  name,  Celsus.  This  is  all  that  I  can 
send  thee  from  the  Getic  land,  this  is  the  only  thing 
there  that  I  may  have  for  mine  own.  I  had  not  the 
power  to  follow  thy  funeral  or  anoint  thy  body  :  I  am 
separated  by  the  whole  world  from  thy  tomb.  He 
who  had  the  power,  that  Maximus  whom  thou  didst 
in  life  regard  as  a  god,  bestowed  upon  thee  every 
service.  He  conducted  for  thee  a  funeral  with 
ceremonials  of  great  honour,  pouring  the  balsam  upon 

813 


OVID 

diluit  et  lacrimis  maerens  unguenta  profusis 

ossaque  vicina  condita  texit  humo. 
65  qui  quoniam  extinctis,  quae  debet,  praestat  amicis, 
et  nos  extinctis  adnumerare  potest. 

X. 

Naso  suo  profugus  mittit  tibi,  Flacce,  salutem, 

mittere  rem  siquis,  qua  caret  ipse,  potest. 
longus  enim  curis  vitiatum  corpus  amaris 

non  patitur  vires  languor  habere  suas. 
6  nee  dolor  ullus  adest,  nee  febribus  uror  anhelis, 

et  peragit  soliti  vena  tenoris  iter. 
os  hebes  est  positaeque  movent  fastidia  mensae, 

et  queror,  invisi  cum  venit  bora  cibi. 
quod  mare,  quod  tellus,  adpone  quod  educat  aer, 
10      nil  ibi,  quod  nobis  esuriatur,  erit. 

nectar  et  ambrosiam,  latices  epulasque  deorum, 

det  mihi  formosa  nava l  luventa  manu, 
non  tanien  exacuet  torpens  sapor  ille  palatum, 

stabit  et  in  stomacho  pondus  inerte  diu. 
15  haec  ego  non  ausim,  cum  sint  verissima,  cuivis 

scribere,  delicias  ne  mala  nostra  vocet. 
scilicet  is  status  est,  ea  rerum  forma  mearum, 

deliciis  etiam  possit  ut  esse  locus  ! 
delicias  illi  precor  has  contingere,  siquis 
20      ne  mihi  sit  levior  Caesaris  ira  timet. 

is  quoque,  qui  gracili  cibus  est  in  corpore,  somnus, 

non  alit  officio  corpus  inane  suo. 
sed  vigilo  vigilantque  mei  sine  fine  dolores, 

quorum  materiam  dat  locus  ipse  mihi. 
1  nava]  grata 

1  i.e.  show  me  the  same  devotion  which  in  my  case  may 
result  in  help.       ,  *  Hebe. 


EX  PONTO,  I.  ix.  53— x.  24 

thy  cold  breast .  In  grief  he  mingled  with  the  unguents 
falling  tears,  laying  thy  bones  to  rest  in  the  protec- 
tion of  neighbouring  ground.  He,  since  to  dead 
friends  he  pays  the  debt  he  owes,  may  reckon  me 
also  with  the  dead.1 

X.  To  FLACCUS 

Exiled  Naso  sends  you  a  "  Health/*  Flaccus,  if  one 
can  send  a  thing  that  he  himself  lacks.  For  long 
continued  lassitude  has  impaired  my  frame  with 
bitter  cares  and  suffers  it  not  to  possess  its  proper 
strength.  I  have  no  pain,  I  do  not  burn  and  gasp 
with  fever,  my  pulse  continues  its  normal  beat.  But 
my  mouth  lacks  taste,  I  feel  aversion  for  the  courses 
set  before  me,  and  complain  whenever  the  hour  for 
hateful  eating  comes.  Serve  me  with  any  product 
of  sea  or  land  or  air  ;  nothing  will  excite  my  hunger. 
Let  nectar  and  ambrosia,  the  food  and  drink  of  the 
gods,  be  offered  me  by  the  shapely  hand  of  busy 
Juventas,2  yet  that  savour  will  not  stimulate  my 
sluggish  palate  and  a  weight  will  long  remain  in 
my  inactive  stomach. 

15  All  this  I  should  not  venture  to  write  to  every- 
body, despite  its  truth,  lest  he  should  term  my  woes 
mere  daintiness.  Such  in  sooth  is  my  condition,  such 
is  the  nature  of  my  circumstances  that  there  is  even 
the  possibility  of  being  dainty  !  I  pray  such  daintiness 
as  this  may  be  the  lot  of  any  who  fears  that  Caesar's 
wrath  may  rest  too  lightly  upon  me  ! 

21  Even  that  sleep  which  is  food  to  a  slender  frame 
does  not  support  as  it  should  my  impoverished  body, 
but  I  am  wakeful,  my  endless  woes  are  wakeful  too, 
for  the  place  in  which  I  am  supplies  them  with 

315 


OVID 

25  vix  igitur  possis  visos  agnoscere  vultus, 

quoque  ierit  quaeras  qui  fuit  ante  color, 
parvus  in  exiles  sucus  mihi  pervenit  artus, 

membraque  sunt  cera  pallidiora  nova, 
non  haec  inmodico  contraxi  damna  Lyaeo  : 
30      scis  mihi  quam  solae  paene  bibantur  aquae, 
non  epulis  oneror  :   quarum  si  tangar  amore, 

est  tamen  in  Geticis  copia  nulla  locis. 
nee  vires  adimit  Veneris  damnosa  voluptas  : 

non  solet  in  maestos  ilia  venire  toros. 
35  unda  locusque  nocent  et  causa  valentior  istis, 

anxietas  animi,  quae  mihi  semper  adest. 
haec  nisi  tu  pariter  simili  cum  fratre  levares, 

vix  mens  tristitiae  nostra  tulisset  onus, 
vos  estis  fracto  tellus  non  dura  phaselo, 
40      quamque  negant  multi,  vos  mihi  fertis  opem. 
ferte,  precor,  semper,  quia  semper  egebimus  ilia, 

Caesaris  offensum  dum  mihi  numen  erit. 
qui  meritam  nobis  minuat,  non  finiat,  iram, 

suppliciter  vestros  quisque  rogate  deos. 


316 


EX  PONTO,  I.  x. 

material.  Scarce  could  you  recognize  my  features 
should  you  see  them,  and  you  would  ask  what  has 
become  of  my  former  colour.  But  little  vigour 
pervades  my  emaciated  limbs  ;  I  am  paler  than 
fresh  wax.  These  troubles  I  have  not  brought  upon 
myself  by  immoderate  drinking — you  know  that 
water  is  almost  my  only  drink — nor  do  I  overload 
myself  with  food  ;  even  if  I  had  a  passion  for  it, 
there  is  no  opportunity  in  the  Getic  country.  My 
strength  is  not  impaired  by  Venus*  ruinous  passion  ; 
she  is  not  wont  to  approach  the  couch  of  sorrow. 
Tis  the  water  and  the  country  that  injure  me  to- 
gether with  a  cause  still  stronger — the  mental  worry 
which  ever  attends  me. 

37  Unless  you  and,  like  you,  your  brother  were  miti- 
gating these  woes,  scarce  would  my  mind  have  borne 
the  burden  of  my  sorrow.  You  are  like  a  kindly 
land  to  a  shattered  boat ;  you  bring  me  the  aid 
which  many  deny.  Give  it  me  always,  I  beseech  you, 
for  I  shall  always  need  it  as  long  as  divine  Caesar 
shall  feel  anger  against  me.  That  he  may  lessen, 
not  end,  his  deserved  wrath,  let  each  of  you  as  sup- 
pliants implore  your  gods. 


317 


LIBER  SECUNDUS 
I. 

Hue  quoque  Caesarei  pervenit  fama  triumphi, 

languida  quo  fessi  vix  venit  aura  Noti. 
nil  fore  dulce  mihi  Scythica  regione  putavi : 

iam  minus  hie  odio  est,  quam  fuit  ante,  locus. 
6  tandem  aliquid  pulsa  curarum  nube  serenum 

vidi,  fortunae  verba  dedique  meae. 
nolit  ut  ulla l  mihi  contingere  gaudia  Caesar, 

velle  potest  cuivis  haec  tamen  una  dari. 
di  quoque,  ut  a  cunctis  hilari  pietate  colantur, 
10      tristitiam  poni  per  sua  festa  iubent. 

denique,  quod  certus  furor  est  audere  fateri, 

hac  ego  laetitia,  si  vetet  ipse,  fruar. 
luppiter  utilibus  quotiens  iuvat  imbribus  agros, 

mixta  tenax  segeti  crescere  lappa  solet. 
16  nos  quoque  frugiferum  sentimus  inutilis  herba 

numen,  et  invita  saepe  iuvamur  ope. 
gaudia  Caesareae  mentis  pro  parte  virili 

sunt  mea  :  privati  nil  habet  ilia  domus. 
gratia,  Fama,  tibi,  per  quam  spectata  triumphi 
20      incluso  mediis  est  mihi  pompa  Getis. 

1  noluit  ilia 

1  Germanicus  won  the  triumphal  insignia  (with  Tiberius) 
318 


BOOK   II 
I.  To  GERMANICUS  CAESAR 

Even  to  this  place  has  the  fame  of  Caesar's  triumph1 
penetrated,  whither  scarce  comes  the  weak  breath 
of  weary  Notus.  No  pleasant  news  have  I  ever 
looked  for  in  the  Scythian  land,  but  now  this  place 
is  less  hateful  than  it  was  before.  At  last  the  clouds 
of  care  have  burst  asunder  and  I  have  glimpsed  a  bit 
of  clear  sky  ;  I  have  cheated  my  fate.  E'en  though 
Caesar  may  be  unwilling  that  any  joys  befall  me,  yet 
this  one  joy  it  may  be  he  wishes  to  have  granted  to 
everybody.  Even  the  gods,  to  secure  joyous  worship 
from  all,  command  men  to  lay  aside  sorrow  through- 
out their  feast  days.  In  fine,  though  'tis  outright 
madness  to  dare  the  confession,  this  is  a  joy  that  I 
would  make  my  own  were  he  in  person  to  forbid  it. 

13  Whenever  Jupiter  floods  the  fields  with  helpful 
showers  the  tough  burs  are  wont  to  grow  mingled 
with  the  crops.  I,  too,  useless  weed  though  I  am, 
feel  the  fructifying  power,  and  am  often  benefited 
against  his  will.  The  joys  of  Caesar's  heart  are  mine 
to  the  extent  of  my  capacity  ;  that  house  has  nothing 
that  is  private.  Thanks,  Fame,  to  thee  through 
whom  I,  prisoned  among  the  Getae,  have  seen  the 

against  the  Dalmatians,  A.D.  9,  but  the  actual  celebration 
was  postponed  because  of  the  defeat  of  Varus. 

319 


OVID 

indice  te  didici,  nuper  visenda  coisse 

innumeras  gentes  ad  duels  ora  sui  : 
quaeque  capit  vastis  inmensum  moenibus  orbem, 

hospitiis  Romam  vix  habuisse  locum. 
25  tu  mihi  narrasti,  cum  multis  lucibus  ante 

fuderit  assiduas  nubilus  Auster  aquas, 
numine  caelesti  solem  fulsisse  serenum, 

cum  populi  vultu  conveniente  die, 
atque  ita  victorem  cum  magnae  vocis  honore 
30      bellica  laudatis  dona  dedisse  viris, 
claraque  sumpturum  pictas  insignia  vestes 

tura  prius  sanctis  inposuisse  focis, 
iustitiamque  sui  caste 1  placasse  parentis, 

illo  quae 2  templum  pectore  semper  habet, 
36  quaque  ierit  felix  adiectum  plausibus  omen, 

saxaque  roratis  erubuisse  rosis  ; 
protinus  argento  versos  imitantia  muros 

barbara  cum  pictis  3  oppida  lata  viris, 
fluminaque  et  montes  et  in  altis  proelia4  silvis, 
40      armaque  cum  telis  in  strue  mixta  sua, 
deque  tropaeorum,  quod  sol  incenderit,6  auro 

aurea  Romani  tecta  fuisse  fori, 
totque  tulisse  duces  captivis  6  addita  coin's 

vincula,  paene  hostis  quot  satis  esse  fuit. 
45  maxima  pars  horum  vitam  veniamque  tulerunt, 

in  quibus  et  belli  summa  caputque  Bato.7 
cur  ego  posse  negem  minui  mihi  numinis  iram, 

cum  videam  mitis  hostibus  esse  deos  ? 
pertulit  hie  idem  nobis,  Germanice,  rumor, 
50      oppida  sub  titulo  nominis  isse  8  tui . 

1  castae  vel  castos  vel  iustos  corr.  Scaliger     a  quo  corr.  Seal. 
8  victis  *  proelia  Merkel]  proflua  vel  pascua 

5  incenderet  vel  incenderat :  incenderit  r 
a  captives ;  captivis  <r       '  Bato]  fuit  vel  tenet         8  esse 

320 


EX  PONTO,  II.  i.  21-50 

splendour  of  the  triumph.  By  thy  evidence  I  learned 
that  recently  countless  races  assembled  to  see  their 
leader's  face  ;  and  Rome,  that  embraces  the  measure- 
less world  within  her  vast  walls,  scarce  had  room  for 
her  guests.  Thou  didst  tell  me  how,  though  for 
many  days  before  the  cloudy  Auster  poured  forth 
constant  rain,  the  sun  through  heavenly  power  shone 
bright,  the  day  matching  the  looks  of  the  people  ; 
how  the  victor,  honouring  them  with  a  loud  voice, 
bestowed  the  warlike  gifts  upon  the  heroes  he 
praised  ;  how  as  he  was  about  to  don  the  em- 
broidered vestments,  the  marks  of  glory,  first  he 
sprinkled  incense  on  the  sacred  hearth,  appeasing  in 
purity  the  justice  of  his  father  which  ever  has  a 
shrine  in  that  breast ;  how  wherever  he  went,  he 
received  the  happy  omen  of  applause  and  the  pave- 
ment blushed  with  dewy  roses.  Before  him,  silver 
counterparts  of  the  conquered  walls,  barbarian  towns 
were  carried  with  pictured  men  upon  them,  rivers 
and  mountains  and  battles  in  deep  forests,  shields  and 
spears  in  a  confused  pile,  and  from  the  gold  of  the 
trophies  kindled  by  the  sun,  the  buildings  of  the 
Roman  forum  turned  to  gold.  So  many  chieftains 
bore  chains  upon  their  vanquished  necks  that  they 
could  almost  suffice  to  be  the  enemy.  The  greater 
part  received  life  and  pardon,  among  them  even  Bato, 
head  and  front  of  the  war.  Why  should  /  deny  that 
for  rne  the  wrath  of  the  deity  cannot  diminish  when 
I  see  the  gods  merciful  to  an  enemy  ? 

49  The   same   report    told   rne,    Germanicus,    that 
towns  1  moved  on  under  the  title  of  thy  name  ;  that 

1  Models    or    "  floats "    representing    the  towns.      See 
note  on  Tr.  iv.  2.  37. 

Y  321 


OVID 

atque  ea  te  contra  nee  muri  mole  nee  armis 

nee  satis  ingenio  tuta  fuisse  loci, 
di  tibi  dent  annos,  a  te  nam  cetera  sumes, 

sint  modo  virtu ti  tempora  longa  tuae. 
65  quod  precor,  eveniet :  sunt  quiddam l  oracula  vatum  : 

nam  deus  optanti  prospera  signa  dedit. 
te  quoque  victorem  Tarpeias  scandere  in  arces 

laeta  coronatis  Roma  videbit  equis  ; 
maturosque  pater  nati  spectabit  honores, 
60      gaudia  percipiens,  quae  dedit  ipse  suis. 

iam  nunc  haec  a  me,  iuvenum  belloque  togaque 

maxime,  dicta  tibi  vaticinante  nota. 
hunc  quoque  carminibus  referam  fortasse  triumphum, 

sufficiet  nostris  si  modo  vita  malis, 
65  imbuero  Scythicas  si  non  prius  ipse  sagittas, 

abstuleritque  ferox  hoc  caput  ense  Getes. 
quae  si  me  salvo  dabitur  tua  laurea  templis, 

omina  bis  dices  vera  fuisse  mea. 


II. 

Ille  domus  vestrae  primis  venerator  ab  annis, 

pulsus  ad  Euxini  Naso  sinistra  freti, 
mittit  ab  indomitis  hanc,  Messab'ne,  salutem, 
quam  solitus  praesens  est  tibi  ferre,  Getis. 
6  ei  mihi,  si2  lecto  vultus  tibi  nomine  non  est 

qui  fuit,  et  dubitas  cetera  perlegere  ! 
perlege,  nee  mecum  pariter  mea  verba  relega  : 

urbe  licet  vestra  versibus  esse  meis. 
non  ego  concepi,  si  Pelion  Ossa  tulisset, 
10      clara  mea  tangi  sidera  posse  manu, 

1  quaedam  corr.  Heinsius  2  si]  quid 

1  This  prophecy  was  fulfilled  A.D.  18,  when  Germanicus 
triumphed  over  the  Germans. 

322 


EX  PONTO,  II.  i.  51—11.  10 

against  thee  they  had  been  secure  neither  by  massive 
walls  nor  arms  nor  skilful  site.  Gods  grant  thee 
years  !  Thou  thyself  wilt  supply  all  else,  so  but  time 
enough  be  vouchsafed  thy  worth.  My  prayer  shall 
be  fulfilled  ;  the  prophecies  of  poets  are  of  some 
worth,  for  the  god  has  given  favourable  sign  in  answer 
to  my  prayer.  Thou  too  shalt  climb  as  victor  l  the 
Tarpeian  citadel,  a  joyful  sight  for  Rome,  with  gar- 
landed steeds.  Thy  father  shall  see  the  ripe  honours 
of  his  son,  himself  feeling  the  joy  that  he  has  given 
to  his  own.  Even  now,  greatest  of  our  youth  in 
war  and  peace,  mark  these  words  of  prophecy  from 
me.  That  triumph  also  perchance  I  shall  relate  in 
song  if  only  my  life  proves  equal  to  my  misfortunes, 
if  1  do  not  first  stain  Scythian  arrows  with  my  blood, 
if  a  fierce  Getan  does  not  take  life  from  me  with  the 
sword.  In  my  lifetime  should  thy  laurel  be  dedicated 
in  the  temple  thou  wilt  say  that  my  prophecies  have 
twice  a  come  true. 

II.  To  MESSALINUS 

He  who  revered  your  house  from  his  earliest  years, 
Naso,  the  exile  on  Euxine's  left-hand  shore,3  sends  to 
you,  Messalinus,  from  the  land  of  the  unconquered 
Getae  this  greeting  which  he  used  to  offer  face  to 
face.  Alas  !  if  at  the  reading  of  his  name  you  have 
not  the  countenance  you  had  of  old  and  hesitate  to 
read  what  remains.  Yet  read  to  the  end,  nor  banish 
my  words  along  with  myself ;  my  verses  are  per- 
mitted to  dwell  in  your  city.  I  never  imagined  that 
should  Ossa  uphold  Pelion,  my  hand  could  touch  the 

2  i.e.  Germanicus'  triumph  and  the  poet's  promised  eulogy, 
cf.  v.  63.  3  Cf.  Tr.  iv.  1.  60  n. 

323 


OVID 

nee  nos  Enceladi  dementia  castra  secuti 

in  rerum  dominos  movimus  arma  deos, 
nee,  quod  Tydidae  temeraria  dextera  fecit, 

numina  sunt  telis  ulla  petita  meis. 
15  est  mea  culpa  gravis,  sed  quae  me  perdere  solum 

ausa  sit,  et  nullum  maius  adorta  nefas. 
nil  nisi  non  sapiens  possum  timidusque  vocari  : 

haec  duo  sunt  animi  nomina  vera  mei. 
esse  quidem  fateor  meritam  post  Caesaris  iram 
20      difficilem  precibus  te  quoque  iure  meis  ; 
quaeque  tua  est  pietas  in  totum  nomen  luli, 

te  laedi,  cum  quis  laeditur  inde,  putas. 
sed  licet  arma  feras  et  vulnera  saeva  mineris, 

non  tamen  efficies  ut  timeare  mihi. 
25  puppis  Achaemeniden  Graium  Troiana  recepit, 

profuit  et  Myso  Pelias  hasta  duci. 
confugit  interdum  templi  violator  ad  aram, 

nee  petere  offensi  numinis  horret  opem. 
dixerit  hoc  aliquis  tutum  non  esse.     fatemur. 
30      sed  non  per  placidas  it  mea  puppis  aquas. 
tuta  petant  alii  :  fortuna  miserrima  tuta  est, 

nam  timor  eventus  l  deterioris  abest. 
qui  rapitur  spumante  salo,  sua  brachia  tendens 

porrigit  ad  spinas  duraque  saxa  manus,  2 
35  accipitremque  timens  3  pennis  trepidantibus  ales 

audet  ad  humanos  fessa  venire  sinus, 
nee  se  vicino  dubitat  committere  tecto, 

quae  fugit  infestos  territa  cerva  canes. 
da,  precor,  accessum  lacrimis,  mitissime,  nostris, 
40      nee  rigidam  timidis  vocibus  obde  for  em, 


eventu  z  Vv.  33-34  nic  T  :  corrupti  in  A  cett. 

3  accipitrem  metuens 


324 


EX  PONTO,  II.  n.  11-40 

bright  stars  ;  I  have  not  joined  the  mad  camp  of 
Enceladus  and  aroused  war  against  the  gods  who  rule 
the  world  ;  I  have  not,  like  the  rash  hand  of  Tydeus' 
son,1  aimed  my  spear  against  the  gods.  My  fault  is 
heavy,  but  'tis  one  which  has  dared  to  destroy  me 
alone,  attempting  no  greater  crime.  No  term  save 
"  senseless  "  and  "  timid  "  can  be  applied  to  me  ; 
these  are  the  two  true  words  for  my  soul.  It  is 
indeed,  I  admit,  after  I  deserved  Caesar's  anger, 
with  justice  that  you  are  hard  to  my  entreaties  ; 
such  is  your  devotion  to  all  of  the  lulean  2  name  that 
you  are  injured  too  if  you  think  any  of  them  is 
injured.  But  though  you  take  arms  and  threaten 
me  with  cruel  wounds,  yet  will  you  not  make  me 
fear  you.  The  ship  of  a  Trojan  succoured  Achae- 
menides,  Greek  though  he  was  ;  the  Pelian  spear 
helped  the  My  si  an  chieftain.3  Sometimes  the 
violator  of  a  temple  takes  refuge  at  the  altar,  not 
dreading  to  seek  the  aid  of  the  angered  god.  Some- 
one may  say  this  is  not  safe.  I  admit  it ;  but  it  is  not 
through  calm  waters  that  my  bark  sails.  Let  safety 
be  the  quest  of  others  ;  uttermost  misery  is  safe,  for 
it  lacks  fear  of  an  outcome  still  worse.  One  who  is 
being  hurried  along  by  the  foaming  sea  stretches  out 
his  arms  and  grasps  at  thorns  and  hard  rocks  ;  in 
fear  of  the  hawk  a  bird  on  trembling  wings  ventures 
in  weariness  to  come  to  man's  protection  ;  the  doe 
hesitates  not  to  trust  herself  to  a  house  hard  by  when 
she  flees  in  terror  from  her  enemies,  the  hounds. 

29  Grant,  I  beseech  you,  gentle  friend,  comfort  to 
my  tears,  shut  not  an  unyielding  door  upon  my  timid 

1  Diomed,  who  wounded  both  Mars  and  Venus. 
2  The  Julii  claimed  descent  from  lulus,  son  of  Aeneas. 
3  Telephus. 

325 


OVID 

verbaque  nostra  favens  Romana  ad  numina  perfer, 

non  tibi  Tarpeio  culta  Tonante  minus, 
mandatique  mei  legatus  suscipe  causam  : 

nulla  meo  quamvis  nomine  causa  bona  est. 
45  iam  prope  depositus,  certe  iam  frigidus  aeger, 

servatus  per  te,  si  modo  server,  ero. 
nunc  tua  pro  lassis  nitatur  gratia  rebus, 

principis  aeterni  quam  tibi  praestat  amor, 
nunc  tibi  et  eloquii  nitor  ille  domesticus  adsit, 
60      quo  poteras  trepidis  utilis  esse  reis. 
vivit  enim  in  vobis  facundi  lingua  parentis, 

et  res  hcredem  repperit  ilia  suum. 
hanc  ego,  non  ut  me  defendere  temptet,  adoro  : 

non  est  confessi  causa  tuenda  rei. 
65  num  tamen  excuses  erroris  origine  factum, 

an  nihil  expediat  tale  movere,  vide, 
vulneris  id  genus  est  quod,  cum  sanabile  non  sit, 

non  contrectari  tutius  esse  puto. 
lingua,  sile  !     non  est  ultra  narrabile  quicquam. 
60      posse  velim  cineres  obruere  ipse  meos. 
sic  igitur,  quasi  me  nullus  deceperit  error, 

verba  fac,  ut  vita,  quam  dedit  ipse,1  fruar  ; 
cumque  serenus  erit  vultusque  remiserit  illos, 

qui  secum  terras  imperiumque  movent, 
C5  exiguam  ne  me  praedam  sinat  esse  Getarum, 

detque  solum  miserae  mite,  precare,  fugae. 
tempus  adest  aptum  precibus.     valet  ille  videtque 

quas  fecit  vires,  Roma,  valere  tuas. 
incolumis  2  coniunx  sua  pulvinaria  servat ; 
70      promovet  Ausonium  filius  imperium  ; 

1  ipse]  ille  2  incolumi 

326 


EX  PONTO,  II.  ii.  41-70 

pica,  favour  me  and  carry  my  words  to  the  Roman 
gods  whom  you  worship  no  less  than  the  Tarpeian 
thunderer  ;  be  the  envoy  of  my  message  and  under- 
take my  cause,  though  no  cause  in  my  name  is  good. 
Already  nearly  dead,  at  least  a  sick  man  who  already 
feels  death's  chill,  I  shall  be  saved  by  you  if  only  I  am 
saved  at  all.  Now  in  behalf  of  weakness  let  that 
influence  struggle  which  the  love  of  the  eternal 
Prince  bestows  upon  you.  Now  employ  the  brilliant 
eloquence  of  your  house  with  which  you  have  been 
able  to  bring  aid  to  trembling  accused.  For  in  you 
both l  lives  the  eloquent  tongue  of  your  father,  which 
has  found  in  you  its  heir.  To  this  I  turn,  not  that  it 
may  try  to  defend  me  ;  one  should  not  defend  the 
cause  of  an  accused  who  makes  confession.  Yet 
consider  whether  you  may  palliate  my  act  through 
the  source  of  my  mistake  or  if  it  would  be  well  to  stir 
up  no  such  matter.  The  wound  is  of  such  sort  that, 
since  it  is  past  healing,  I  deem  it  safer  that  it  be  not 
touched.  Silence,  tongue  !  Nothing  further  can  be 
told  !  Would  I  could  bury  my  own  ashes  ! 

61  So  then,  as  if  I  had  been  beguiled  by  no  mistake, 
frame  your  plea  that  I  may  enjoy  the  life  he  granted 
me.  When  he  is  serene,  when  there  is  peace  upon 
those  lineaments  whose  motion  stirs  the  empire  and 
the  world,  beg  him  not  to  permit  me  to  be  a  poor 
spoil  for  the  Getae,  to  grant  a  peaceful  land  for 
my  wretched  exile.  A  fitting  time  is  at  hand  for 
petitions  :  well  is  he  and  well,  he  sees,  is  it  with 
the  work  of  his  hands — thy  strength,  O  Rome.  In 
safety  his  consort  guards  her  divine  couch  ;  his  son  2 
is  pushing  out  the  bounds  of  the  Ausonian  empire  ; 

1  i.e.  Messalinus  and  his  brother  Cotta  Maximus. 
2  Tiberius. 

327 


OVID 

praeterit  ipse  suos  animo  Germanicus  annos, 

nee  vigor  est  Drusi  nobilitate  minor, 
adde  nurus  l  neptesque  pias  natosque  nepotuin 

ceteraque  Augustae  membra  valere  domus  ; 
76  adde  triumphatos  modo  Paeonas,  adde  quieti 

subdita  montanae  brachia  Dalmatiae. 
nee  dedignata  est  abiectis  Illyris  armis 

Caesar eum  famulo  vertice  ferre  pedem. 
ipse  super  currum  placido  spectabilis  ore 
80      tempora  Phoebea  virgine  nexa  tulit. 

quern  pia  vobiscum  proles  comitavit  euntem, 

digna  parente  suo  nominibusque  datis, 
fratribus  adsimiles,2  quos  proxima  templa  tenentis 

divus  ab  excelsa  lulius  aede  videt. 
85  his  Messalinus,  quibus  omnia  cedere  debent, 

primum  laetitiae  non  negat  esse  locum, 
quicquid  ab  his  superest,  venit  in  certamen  arnoris  : 

hac  hominum  nulli  parte  secundus  erit. 
hanc  colet  ante  diem  qua,  quae  3  decreta  merenti, 
90      venit  honoratis  laurea  digna  comis. 

felices,  quibus,  o,4  licuit  spectare  triumphos 

et  ducis  ore  deos  aequiperante  frui  ! 
at  mihi  Sauromatae  pro  Caesaris  ore  videndi 

terraque  pads  inops  undaque  vincta6  gelu. 
95  si  tamen  haec  audis  et  vox  mea  pervenit  istuc,6 

sit  tua  mutando  gratia  blanda  loco. 

1  nurum  2  ad&imilis 

8  quamque  vel  qua  quam  (quamquam) :   qua  quae  Owen 
*  o]  hos  6  iuncta  6  illuc,  sed  cf.  istae    A 

1  Drusus,  son  of  Tiberius. 

8  Nurus  neptesque  is  a  general  expression  for  the  youngei 
women  of  the  imperial  house,  especially  Agrippina  anc 
Livilla.  Augustus  had  no  son  of  his  own,  ana  the  onlj 
person  who  at  this  time  could  in  any  sense  be  called  hii 
328 


EX  PONTO,  II.  n.  71-96 

the  spirit  of  Germanicus  outruns  his  years,  and  the 
energy  of  Drusus  l  is  not  unequal  to  his  noble  birth. 
Add  too  that  his  daughters-in-law,2  his  loyal  grand- 
daughters, the  sons  of  his  grandsons — all  the  members 
of  the  Augustan  house — are  well.  Add  the  triumph 
over  Paeonia,3  add  the  right  arms  of  mountainous 
Dalmatia  constrained  to  peace.  Illyria  has  not  dis- 
dained to  throw  aside  her  arms  and  submit  her 
enslaved  head  to  a  Caesar's  foot.  He  himself,4  con- 
spicuous with  calm  aspect  in  his  car,  bore  his  temples 
garlanded  by  Phoebus'  maid.5  His  loyal  sons6  in  your7 
company  attended  him  as  he  advanced,  worthy  of 
their  parent  and  of  the  names  conferred  upon  them, 
like  unto  the  brethren  8  dwelling  in  the  neighbouring 
temple  whom  the  divine  Julius  beholds  from  his  lofty 
shrine.  To  these  9  to  whom  all  things  ought  to  yield 
Messalinus  refuses  not  the  foremost  place  in  rejoic- 
ing :  all  that  these  do  not  claim  is  matter  for  affec- 
tion's rivalry  ;  therein  to  no  man  will  he  take  second 
place.  Before  all  else  he  will  venerate  this  day  on 
which  the  laurel  decreed  for  merit  has  been  worthily 
placed  upon  honoured  locks. 

91  Oh  happy  they  to  whom  it  has  been  vouchsafed 
to  view  the  triumph,  to  enjoy  the  godlike  countenance 
of  the  general !  But  I  must  gaze  upon  the  Sauromatae 
in  place  of  Caesar's  face,  upon  a  land  devoid  of 
peace,  and  waters  in  the  bonds  of  frost.  Yet  if  you 
hear  my  words,  if  my  voice  can  reach  so  far,  let  your 
winning  influence  work  to  change  my  abode.  This  is 

daughter-in-law  was  Antonia,  the  widow  of  his  stepson 
Drusus.  3  i.e.  Pannonia. 

4  Tiberius,  the  Caesar  just  mentioned.  5  Daphne,  the  laurel. 

0  Germanicus  (adopted  son)  and  Drusus. 

7  i.e.  Messalinus  and  Cotta  Maximus,  cf.  1.  51. 

8  Castor  and  Pollux.       9  i.e.  the  emperor  and  his  house. 

329 


OVID 

hoc  pater  ille  tuus  primo  mihi  cultus  ah  aevo, 

siquid  habet  sensus  umbra  diserta,  petit, 
hoc  petit  et  frater,  quamvis  fortasse  veretur 
100      servandi  noceat  ne  tibi  cura  mei. 

tota  domus  rogat  hoc,  nee  tu  potes  ipse  negare 

et  nos  in  turbae  parte  fuisse  tuae. 
ingenii  certe,  quo  nos  male  sensimus  usos, 

Artibus  exceptis,  saepe  probator  eras. 
105  nee  mea,  si  tantum  peccata  novissima  demas, 

esse  potest  domui  vita  pudenda  tuae. 
sic  igitur  vestrae  vigeant  penetralia  gentis, 

curaque  sit  superis  Caesaribusque  tui  : 
mite,  sed  iratum  merito  mihi,  nurnen  adora, 
110      eximat x  ut  Scythici  me  2  feritate  loci. 

difficile  est,  fateor,  sed  tendit  in  ardua  virtus, 

et  talis  meriti  gratia  maior  erit. 
nee  tamen  Aetnaeus  vasto  Polyphemus  in  antro 

accipiet  voces  Antiphatesve  tuas, 
115  sed  placidus  facilisque  parens  veniaeque  paratus, 

et  qui  fulmineo  saepe  sine  igne  tonat. 
qui  cum  triste  aliquid  statuit,  fit  tristis  et  ipse, 

cuique  fere  poenam  sumere  poena  sua  est. 
victa  tamen  vitio  est  huius  dementia  nostro, 
120      venit  et  ad  vires  ira  coacta  suas. 

qui  quoniam  patria  toto  sumus  orbe  remoti, 

nee  licet  ante  ipsos  procubuisse  deos, 
quos  colis,  ad  superos  haec  fer  mandata  sacerdos, 

adde  sed  et  proprias  ad  mea  verba  preces. 
125  sic  tamen  haec  tempta,  si  non  nocitura  putabis. 

ignosces.     timeo  naufragus  omne  fretum. 

1  eximar  2  me  ow. :   add.  S~ 


330 


EX  PONTO,  II.  n.  97-126 

the  request  of  your  famed  father  whom  I  worshipped 
from  my  earliest  youth,  if  his  shade,  still  eloquent, 
has  aught  of  sentience.  This  is  the  request  of  your 
brother  too,  though  perchance  he  may  fear  that  care 
in  saving  me  may  bring  you  harm.  All  your  house 
ask  this,  nor  can  you  yourself  say  that  I  too  was  not 
once  a  member  of  your  throng.  At  least  my  talent, 
which,  as  I  have  learned  to  feel,  I  have  used  but  ill, 
was  oft,  except  only  my  "  Art/'  the  subject  of  your 
praise.  Nor  can  my  life,  so  you  but  take  away  its 
latest  sins,  bring  shame  upon  your  house.  So, 
therefore,  may  the  home  of  your  race  thrive,  so  may 
those  above,  together  with  the  Caesars,  watch  over  you 
— on  condition  that  you  implore  that  deity,  so  merci- 
ful yet  justly  angry  with  me,  to  remove  me  from  the 
wildness  of  the  Scythian  land.  Tis  hard,  I  admit, 
yet  virtue  aims  at  what  is  hard,  and  gratitude  for 
such  a  service  will  be  all  the  greater.  No  Poly- 
phemus in  the  lonely  caverns  of  Aetna,  no  Anti- 
phates  will  receive  your  words,  but  a  calm  and  lenient 
father  ready  to  pardon,  who  often  thunders  without 
the  aid  of  the  fiery  lightning,  who  after  a  harsh 
decision  is  himself  saddened,  who  usually  lays  a 
penalty  upon  himself  whenever  he  exacts  one.  Yet 
his  mercy  was  defeated  by  my  fault,  his  wrath  by 
compulsion  reached  its  full  strength.  But  I  am 
separated  from  my  country  by  the  whole  wrorld's 
span,  1  cannot  throw  myself  before  the  deity's  feet. 
You  worship  him  :  be  my  priest  and  carry  to  him  my 
message,  but  add  your  own  prayers  to  my  words. 
Yet  try  this  only  if  you  feel  it  will  not  injure  me. 
Pardon  !  I  am  a  shipwrecked  man  who  fears  every 
sea. 


331 


OVID 

III. 

Maxime,  qui  claris  nomen  virtu tibus  aequas, 

nee  sinis  ingenium  nobilitate  premi, 
culte  mihi — quid  enim  status  hie  a  funere  differt 

supremum  vitae  tempus  adusque  meae, 
6  rem  facis,  afflictum  non  aversatus  amicum, 

qua  non  est  aevo  rarior  ulla  tuo. 
turpe  quidem  dictu,  sed,  si  modo  vera  fatemur, 

vulgus  amicitias  utilitate  probat. 
cura,quid  expediat,prius  est,quam  quid  sit  honestum, 
10      et  cum  fortuna  statque  caditque  fides, 
nee  facile  invenias  1  multis  in  milibus  unum, 

virtutem  pretium  qui  putet  esse  sui. 
ipse  decor,  recte  facti  si  praemia  desint, 

non  movet,  et  gratis  paenitet  esse  probum. 
15  nil  2  nisi  quod  prodest  carum  est :  sed  3  detrahe  menti 

spem  fructus  avidae,  nemo  petendus  erit. 
at  reditus  iam  quisque  suos  amat,  et  sibi  quid  sit 

utile,  sollicitis  supputat  articulis. 
illud  amicitiae  quondam  venerabile  numen  4 
20      prostat  et  in  quaestu  pro  meretrice  sedet. 
quo  magis  admiror,  non,  ut  torrentibus  undis, 

communis  vitii  te  quoque  labe  trahi. 
diligitur  nemo,  nisi  cui  fortuna  secunda  est  : 

quae,  simul  intonuit,  proxima  quaeque  fugat. 
25  en  ego,  non  paucis  quondam  munitus  amicis, 

dum  flavit  velis  aura  secunda  meis, 
ut  fera  nimboso  tumuerunt  aequora  vento, 

in  mediis  lacera  nave  relinquor  aquis  ; 
cumque  alii  nolint  etiam  me  nosse  videri, 
30      vix  duo  proiecto  tresve  tulistis  opem. 


332 


1  invenies  2  nil]  et 

3  sed]  si  vel  et  vel  en  4  nomen 


EX  PONTO,  II.  in.  1-30 

III.  To  MAXIMUS 

Maximus,  you  who  match  your  name  with  illus- 
trious virtues  nor  permit  your  nature  to  be  eclipsed  by 
your  noble  birth,  I  have  revered  you — for  in  what  does 
my  condition  differ  from  death  ? — even  unto  my  life's 
latest  day.  In  not  disowning  an  unfortunate  friend 
you  perform  an  act  than  which  none  is  rarer  in  the 
age  in  which  you  live.  Shameful  it  is  to  say,  yet 
the  common  herd,  if  only  we  admit  the  truth,  value 
friendships  by  their  profit.  They  care  more  for 
advantage  than  for  honour,  and  their  loyalty  stands 
or  falls  with  fortune  :  nor  can  one  easily  find  among 
many  thousands  a  single  man  who  considers  virtue 
its  own  reward.  The  very  glory  of  a  good  deed,  if  it 
lacks  rewards,  affects  men  not ;  unrewarded  upright- 
ness brings  them  regret.  Nothing  but  profit  is 
prized  ;  only  take  from  the  greedy  mind  hope  of  gain 
and  nobody  will  be  the  object  of  attentions.  Nowa- 
days everybody  loves  his  own  income  and  reckons  on 
anxious  fingers  what  is  of  service  to  himself.  That 
once  revered  goddess  of  friendship  is  exposed  for  sale, 
awaiting  gain  like  a  courtesan. 

21  So  my  admiration  is  the  greater  that  you  too  are 
not  carried  away,  as  by  a  torrent,  by  the  corruption  of 
a  common  vice.  There  is  love  for  none  except  him 
whom  fortune  favours  ;  when  once  she  thunders  she 
puts  all  around  to  flight.  Behold  me  !  once  sup- 
ported by  many  friends — while  a  favouring  breeze 
filled  my  sails — now  that  the  wild  seas  have  been 
swelled  by  the  stormy  wind,  I  am  abandoned  on  a 
shattered  bark  in  the  midst  of  the  waters.  While 
others  would  not  even  seem  to  know  me,  there  were 
but  two  or  three  of  you  who  aided  me  when  I  was 

333 


OVID 

quorum  tu  princeps.    neque  enim  comes  esse,  sed 

auctor, 

nee  petere  exemplum,  sed  dare  dignus  eras, 
te,  nihil  exactos1  nisi  nos2  peccasse  fatentem, 

sponte  sua  probitas  officiumque  iuvat. 
35  iudice  te  mercede  caret  per  seque  petenda  est 

externis  virtus  incomitata  bonis. 
turpe  putas  abigi,3  quia  sit  miserandus,  amicum, 

quodque  sit  infelix,  desinere  esse  tuum. 
mitius  est  lasso  digitum  supponere  mento, 
40      mergere  quam  liquidis  ora  natantis  aquis. 

cerne  quid  Aeacides  post  mortem  praestet  amico  : 

instar  et  hanc  vitam  mortis  habere  puta. 
Pirithoum  Theseus  Stygias  comitavit  ad  undas  : 

a  Stygia  quantum  mors  mea  distat  aqua  ? 
45  adfuit  insano  iuvenis  Phoceus  Orestae  : 

et  mea  non  minimum  culpa  furoris  habet. 
tu  quoque  magnorum  laudes  admitte  virorum, 

ut  facis,4  et  lapso  quam  potes  after  opem. 
si  bene  te  novi,  si,  qui5  prius  esse  solebas, 
50      nunc  quoque  es,  atque  animi  non  cecidere  tui, 
quo  Fortuna  magis  saevit,  magis  ipse  resistis, 

utque  decet,  ne  te  vicerit  ilia,  caves  ; 
et  bene  uti  pugnes,  bene  pugnans  efficit  hostis. 

sic  eadem  prodest  causa  nocetque  mihi. 
55  scilicet  indignum,  iuvenis  carissime,  ducis 

te  fieri  comitem  stantis  in  orbe  deae. 
firmus  es,  et  quoniam  non  sunt  ea,  qualia  velles, 
vela  regis  quassae  qualiacumque  ratis. 

1  ex  acto  :   exactos  Ehwald  z  nos]  non  ve I  vos 

3  abici  4  utque  facis  (et  om.) 

*  qui,  cf.  quid  A]  quis:  quod  £~ 

334 


EX  PONTO,  II.  m.  31-58 

cast  forth.  And  you  were  foremost ;  for  you  were 
suited  not  to  be  their  comrade,  but  their  leader,  not 
to  seek  an  example,  but  to  offer  one.  You  who  admit 
that  I,  the  exiled  one,  did  naught  but  "  err,"  take 
pleasure  in  uprightness  and  duty  for  their  own  sakes. 
In  your  judgment  worth  is  dissevered  from  reward 
and  is  to  be  sought  for  herself,  even  unaccompanied 
by  outward  goods.  You  think  it  base  to  drive  away 
a  friend  because  he  is  to  be  pitied,  to  forbid  him  your 
friendship  because  he  is  ill-starred.  Tis  more  merci- 
ful to  support  his  weary  chin  even  with  a  finger  than 
to  thrust  the  swimmer's  face  beneath  the  clear  waves. 
41  See  what  the  scion T  of  Aeacus  does  for  his  friend  2 
after  death,  and  remember  that  this  life  of  mine  also 
is  like  unto  death  !  Pirithous  had  Theseus'  company 
to  the  waves  of  the  Styx  ;  how  far  is  my  death  from 
the  Stygian  water  ?  Crazed  Orestes  was  helped  by 
the  Phocean  youth  3  ;  my  fault  too  involves  no  little 
madness.  Do  you  also  accept  the  praise  meet  for 
mighty  heroes,  as  you  are  doing,  and  bring  what  aid 
you  can  to  one  who  is  fallen.  If  I  know  you  well,  if 
even  now  you  are  what  you  used  to  be,  and  your 
courage  has  not  failed  you,  the  greater  Fortune's 
rage,  the  more  do  you  resist  her,  taking  care,  as  is 
fitting,  that  she  does  not  conquer  you  ;  and  your  own 
fight  is  rendered  strong  by  the  strong  battling  of  the 
foe.  Thus  the  same  thing  both  helps  and  injures  me. 
Yea,  'tis  an  unworthy  thing  in  your  sight,  dear  youth, 
to  become  a  companion  of  the  goddess  who  stands  on 
the  sphere.  You  are  steadfast  and  since  the  sails  of 
the  battered  ship  are  not  what  you  would  wish,  you 
control  them,  such  as  they  are.  The  craft  is  so 

1  Achilles.  2  Patroclus.  3  Pyludes. 

335 


OVID 

quaeque  ita  concussa  est,  ut  iam  casura  putetur, 
60      restat  adhuc  umeris  fulta  ruina  tuis. 
ira  quidem  primo  fuerat  tua  iusta,  nee  ipso 

lenior,  offensus  qui  mihi  iure  fuit. 
quique  dolor  pectus  tetigisset  Caesaris  alti, 

ilium  iurabas  protinus  esse  tuum. 
C5  ut  tamen  audita  est  nostrae  tibi  cladis  origo, 

diceris  erratis  ingemuisse  meis. 
turn  tua  me  primum  solari  littera  coepit 

et  laesum  flecti  spem  dare  posse  deum. 
movit  amicitiae  turn  te  constantia  longae, 
70      ante  tuos  ortus  quae  mihi  coepta  fuit, 
et  quod  eras  aliis  factus,  mihi  natus  amicus, 

quodque  tibi  in  cunis  oscula  prima  dedi. 
quod,  cum  vestra  domus  teneris  mihi  semper  ab  annis 

culta  sit,  esse  vetus  me  tibi  cogit1  onus. 
76  me  tuus  ille  pater,  Latiae  facundia  linguae, 

quae  non  inferior  nobilitate  fuit, 
primus  ut  auderem  committere  carmina  famae 

impulit  :  ingenii  dux  fuit  ille  mei. 
nee  quo  sit  primum  nobis  a  tempore  cultus 
80      contendo  fratrem  posse  referre  tuum. 

te  tamen  ante  omnis  ita  sum  conplexus,  ut  unus 

quolibet  in  casu  gratia  nostra  fores, 
ultima  me  tecum  vidit  maestisque  cadentes 

excepit  lacrimas  Aethalis  Ilva  2  genis  : 
85  cum  tibi  quaerenti,  num  verus  nuntius  esset, 

attulerat  culpae  quern  mala  fama  meae, 
inter  confessum  dubie  3  dubieque  negantem 

haerebam,  pavidas  dante  timore  notas, 
exemploque  nivis,  quam  mollit  aquaticus  Auster, 
90      gutta  per  attonitas  ibat  oborta  genas. 

1  mine  tibi  cogor  2  aeithali  silva  etc.  corr.  Rutgers 

3  dubie]  medius :  om.  A 
336 


EX  PONTO,  II.  m.  59-90 

shattered  that  men  expect  it  to  founder  at  once,  but 
your  shoulders  still  support  the  wreck.  At  first 
indeed  your  wrath  was  just  nor  milder  than  his  who 
was  rightly  angered  against  me.  The  feeling  which 
had  touched  the  breast  of  lofty  Caesar— that  feeling 
you  swore  forthwith  was  yours.  Yet  when  you 
heard  the  cause  of  my  disaster,  they  say  you  groaned 
over  my  mistake.  At  that  time  your  letter  was  the 
first  to  comfort  me,  bringing  the  hope  that  the  injured 
god  could  be  moved.  Then  you  were  stirred  by 
the  constancy  of  long  friendship  that  began  before 
your  birth,  because  for  others  you  had  become,  for 
me  you  had  been  born,  a  friend,  because  I  gave  you 
the  first  kisses  in  your  cradle.  This,  since  I  have 
constantly  revered  your  house  from  my  earliest 
years,  makes  me  perforce  a  burden  of  long  standing 
upon  you .  That  famed  father  of  yours ,  the  eloquence 
of  the  Latin  tongue,  not  inferior  to  his  noble  birth, 
first  urged  me  to  venture  upon  the  publication  of  my 
verse  :  he  was  the  guide  of  my  genius.  Nor  can 
your  brother,  I  maintain,  recall  the  time  of  my  first 
honour  to  him.  But  to  you  above  all  I  clung  so 
close  that  you  alone,  whate'er  befell,  were  my  source 
of  favour.  Aethalian  Ilva  l  last  saw  us  together  and 
received  the  tears  as  they  fell  from  our  sorrowing 
cheeks.  Then  at  your  question  whether  the  news 
was  true  which  the  ill  repute  of  my  sin  had  brought, 
I  wavered  between  dubious  confession  and  dubious 
denial,  fear  telling  the  tale  of  my  timidity,  and  like 
the  snow  which  rainy  Auster  melts  tears  of  dismay 
welled  up  and  coursed  along  my  cheeks.  And  so  as 
1  The  modern  Elba. 

z  337 


OVID 

haec  igitur  referens  et  quod  mea  crimina  primi 

erroris  venia  posse  latere  vides, 
respicis  antiquum  lassis  in  rebus  amicum, 

fomentisque  iuvas  vulnera  nostra  tuis. 
95  pro  quibus  optandi  si  nobis  copia  fiat, 

tarn  bene  promerito  commoda  mille  precer.1 
sed  si  sola  mihi  dentur  tua  vota,  precabor 

ut  tibi  sit  salvo  Caesare  salva  parens. 
haec  ego,  cum  faceres  altaria  pinguia  ture, 
100      te  soli  turn  memini  prima  rogare  deos. 


IV. 

Accipe  conloquium  gelido  Nasonis  ab  Histro, 

Attice,  iudicio  non  dubitande  meo. 
ecquid  adhuc  remanes  memor  infelicis  amici, 

deserit  an  partis  languida  cura  suas  ? 
6  non  ita  di  mihi  sunt  tristes,  ut  credere  possim 

fasque  putem  iam  te  non  meminisse  mei. 
ante  oculos  nostros  posita  est 2  tua  semper  imago, 

et  videor  vultus  mente  videre  tuos. 
seria  multa  mihi  tecum  conlata  recorder, 
10      nee  data  iucundis  tempora  pauca  iocis. 
saepe  citae  longis  visae  sermonibus  horac, 

saepe  fuit  brevior  quam  mea  verba  dies, 
saepe  tuas  venit  factum  rnodo  carmen  ad  aim's 

et  nova  iudicio  subdita  Musa  tuo  est. 
15  quod  tu  laudaras,  populo  placuisse  putabam. 

hoc  pretium  curae  dulce  regentis 3  erat. 
utque  meus  lima  rasus  liber  esset  amici, 

non  semel  admonitu  facta  litura  tuo  est. 

1  precor  corr.  Heinsivs 

2  posit  a  est]  tua  est  vel  tua  stat  etc. 

3  recent  is  vel  monentis 

338 


EX  PONTO,  II.  m.  91— iv.  18 

you  recall  this,  seeing  that  'tis  possible  for  my  sin, 
by  condoning  my  original  mistake,  to  lie  unnoticed, 
you  take  thought  of  your  old  friend  in  his  misfortunes, 
you  soothe  and  help  my  wounds.  For  this,  should 
full  petition  be  granted  me,  I  should  invoke  a  thou- 
sand blessings  upon  you  for  your  kindly  service,  but 
if  I  be  allowed  only  your  own  vows,  I  will  pray,  after 
Caesar's  weal,  for  that  of  your  mother.  This,  when 
you  enriched  the  altar  with  incense,  you  were  wont 
to  ask  first  of  all,  I  remember,  of  the  gods. 


IV.  To  ATTICUS 

Let  Naso  converse  with  you  from  the  freezing 
Hister,  Atticus,  friend  whom  my  judgment  should 
not  doubt.  Do  you  still  remain  at  all  mindful  of 
your  unhappy  friend  or  has  your  regard  grown  weak 
and  abandoned  its  role  ?  The  gods  are  not  so  harsh 
to  me  that  I  can  believe  and  deem  it  just  that 
you  no  longer  think  of  me.  Before  my  eyes  your 
image  ever  stands  ;  I  seem  in  thought  to  see  your 
features.  I  recall  many  serious  talks  that  we  have 
had  and  not  a  few  hours  given  over  to  pleasant  jest. 
Oft  did  the  hours  seem  too  swift  for  our  long  talks,  oft 
the  day  was  too  short  for  my  words.  Oft  came  to 
your  ears  a  poem  I  had  just  composed  ;  a  new  effort 
was  subjected  to  your  criticism.  What  you  had 
praised  I  considered  had  already  pleased  the  public  ; 
this  was  the  pleasant  reward  of  my  critic's  care.  To 
have  my  book  touched  by  the  file  of  a  friend  I  have 
more  than  once  made  an  erasure  at  your  suggestion. 

339 


OVID 

nos  fora  viderunt  pariter,  nos  porticus  omnis, 
20      nos  via,  nos  iunctis  curva  theatra  locis. 
denique  tantus  amor  nobis,  carissime,  semper, 

quantus  in  Aeacide  Nestorideque  fuit. 
non  ego,  si  biberes  securae  pocula  Lethes, 

excidere  haec  credam  pectore  posse  tuo. 
25  longa  dies  citius  brumali  sidere,  noxque 

tardior  hiberna  solstitialis  erit, 
nee  Babylon  aestum,  nee  frigora  Pontus  habebit, 

calthaque  Paestanas  vincet  odore  rosas, 
quam  tibi  nostrarum  veniant  oblivia  rerum. 
oO      non  ita  pars  fati  Candida  nulla  mei  est. 
ne  tamen  haec  dici  possit  fiducia  mendax 

stultaque  credulitas  nostra  fuisse,  cave, 
constantique  fide  veterem  tutare  sodalem, 

qua  licet  et  quantum  non  onerosus  ero. 

V. 

Condita  disparibus  numeris  ego  Naso  Salano 

praeposita  misi  verba  salute  meo. 
quae  rata  sit,  cupio,  rebusque  ut  comprobet  omen, 

te  precor  a  salvo  possit,  amice,  legi. 
6  candor,  in  hoc  aevo  res  intermortua  paene, 

exigit  ut  faciam  talia  vota  tuus. 
nam  fuerim  quamvis  modico  tibi  iunctus  ab  usu, 

diceris  exiliis  indoluisse  meis  ; 
missaque  ab  Euxino  legeres  cum  carmina  Ponto, 
10      ilia  tuus  iuvit  qualiacumque  favor  ; 

optastique  brevem  solvi *  mihi  Caesaris  iram, 

quod  tamen  optari,  si  sciat,  ipse  sinat. 
moribus  ista  tuis  tarn  mitia  vota  dedisti, 

nee  minus  idcirco  sunt  ea  grata  mihi. 
1  solvi  Postffate]  salvi  vel  fieri 
340 


EX  PONTO,  II.  iv.  19— v.  14. 

The  fora  saw  us  side  by  side,  every  portico,  every 
street ;  the  hollow  theatre  found  us  in  adjoining 
seats.  In  short  our  affection,  dear  friend,  was  always 
as  strong  as  that  of  the  scions  of  Aeacus  and  Nestor. 
Not  even  were  you  drinking  draughts  of  care- 
dispelling  Lethe,  could  I  believe  that  all  this  could 
fall  from  your  heart.  Sooner  shall  the  long  days  come 
to  pass  in  winter,  sooner  shall  the  nights  of  summer 
be  longer  than  those  of  winter,  Babylon  have  no 
heat,  Pontus  no  cold,  sooner  shall  the  lily  surpass  the 
Paestan  rose  in  perfume  than  you  shall  forget  your 
relations  with  me.  Not  so  black  is  any  part  of  my 
fate.  But  beware  lest  this  trust  of  mine  be  called 
fallacious  or  my  belief  foolish  ;  with  steadfast  faith 
defend  your  old  comrade  in  what  way  you  can  and  in 
so  far  as  I  shall  not  be  burdensome. 

V.  To  SALANUS 

A  poem  framed  in  unequal  numbers  I,  Naso,  send 
to  my  Salanus,  prefaced  by  a  wish  for  his  weal.  May 
this  be  so,  I  earnestly  desire,  and  I  pray  that  you,  my 
friend,  to  prove  the  omen  in  fact,  may  be  able  to  read 
it  safe  and  sound.  Your  noble  nature,  a  thing  almost 
at  the  point  of  death  in  this  age,  requires  such  prayer 
from  me.  For  though  I  was  joined  to  you  by  only 
moderate  association,  they  say  that  you  have  grieved 
over  my  exile  ;  when  you  read  verses  sent  from  the 
Euxine  Pontus,  your  kindness  helped  them  whatever 
their  worth  ;  you  wished  that  Caesar's  wrath  might 
soon  be  relaxed  *  in  my  favour — a  wish  that  he  him- 
self would  permit  if  he  knew  it.  To  your  character 
was  due  so  kind  a  wish,  and  it  is  none  the  less  pleasing 
1  The  text  is  not  certain. 

341 


OVID 

15  quoque  magis  moveare  malis,  doctissime,  nostris, 

credibile  est  fieri  condicione  loci, 
vix  hac  invenies  totum,  mihi  crede,  per  orbem, 

quae  minus  Augusta  pace  fruatur  humus, 
tu  tamen  hie  structos  inter  fera  proelia  versus 
20      et  legis  et  lectos  ore  favente  probas, 
ingenioque  meo,  vena  quod  paupere  manat, 

plaudis,  et  e  rivo  flumina  magna  facis. 
grata  quidem  sunt  haec  ammo  suffragia  nostro, 

vix  sibi  cum  miseros  posse  placere  putes.1 
25  durn  tamen  in  rebus  temptamus  carmina  parvis, 

materiae  gracili  sufficit  ingenium. 
nuper,  ut  hue  magni  pervenit  fama  triumphi, 

ausus  sum  tantae  sumere  molis  opus, 
obruit  audentem  rerum  gravitasque  nitorque, 
30      nee  potui  coepti  pondera  ferre  mei. 
illic,  quam  laudes,  erit  officiosa  voluntas  : 

cetera  materia  debilitata  iacent. 
qui  si  forte  liber  vestras  pervenit  ad  auris, 

tutelam  mando  sentiat  ille  tuam. 
35  hoc  tibi  facturo,  vel  si  non  ipse  rogarem, 

accedat  cumulus  gratia  nostra  levis. 
non  ego  laudandus,  sed  sunt  tua  pectora,  lacte 

et  non  calcata  candidiora  nive  : 
mirarisque  alios,  cum  sis  mirabilis  ipse, 
40'     nee  lateant  artes  eloquiumque  tuum. 

te  iuvenum  princeps,  cui  dat  Germania  nomen, 
participem  studii  Caesar  habere  solet. 

1  putas  vel  putat 
342 


EX  PONTO,  II.  v.  15-42 

to  me  for  that  reason.  You  are  all  the  more  affected 
by  my  misfortunes,  accomplished  friend,  because,  I 
believe,  of  the  character  of  my  place  of  exile.  You 
will  scarce  find  in  the  whole  world,  I  assure  you,  a 
land  that  enjoys  so  little  the  Augustan  Peace. 

19  Yet  you  are  reading  here  verses  composed  amid 
fierce  battles,  and  when  you  have  read,  your 
favouring  lips  approve  them.  My  talent,  trickling 
now  in  so  impoverished  a  stream,  wins  your  applause 
and  from  a  rivulet  you  make  a  mighty  river.  Gratify- 
ing indeed  to  my  soul  is  this  suffrage  of  yours,  even 
though  one  might  think  that  the  wretched  can  scarce 
be  pleased  with  themselves.  Still  so  long  as  I 
attempt  verse  on  humble  themes  my  talent  is  equal 
to  the  meagre  subject.  Recently  when  the  report  of 
a  mighty  triumph  reached  me,  I  ventured  to  under- 
take a  work1  of  great  difficulty.  My  venture  was 
overwhelmed  by  the  grandeur  and  splendour  of  the 
theme  ;  I  was  not  able  to  bear  up  under  the  weight  of 
my  task.  Therein  you  will  find  worthy  of  praise  the 
will  to  do  my  duty  ;  all  else  lies  overpowered  by  the 
subject.  If  perchance  that  composition  has  reached 
your  ear,  I  direct  that  it  may  know  your  protection. 
To  you,  who  would  do  this  even  if  I  did  not  ask  it  in 
person,  let  your  favour  to  me  contribute  as  a  sligty; 
incentive.  I  do  not  deserve  your  praise,  but  your 
heart  is  whiter  than  milk,  than  untrodden  snow  ;  you 
feel  admiration  for  others,  though  you  are  worthy  of 
it  yourself  since  your  accomplishments  and  your 
eloquence  are  open  to  the  view  of  all. 

41  You  are  wont  to  share  the  studies  of  the  leader  of 
the  youth,  that  Caesar  on  whom  Germany  bestows  a 

1  Perhaps  the  elegy  to  Germanicus  (Ex  P.  ii.  1). 

343 


OVID 

tu  comes  antiquus,  tu  primis  iunctus  ab  annis 

ingenio  mores  aequiperante  places. 
45  te  dicente  prius  fit  protinus  impetus  illi  : 
teque  habet  elicias  qui  sua  verba  tuis. 
cum  tu  desisti  mortaliaque  ora  quierunt 
tectaque  non  longa  conticuere  mora, 
surgit  luleo  iuvenis  cognomine  dignus, 
60      qualis  ab  Eois  Lucifer  ortus  aquis. 

dumque  silens  adstat,  status  est  vultusque  diserti, 

spemque  decens  doctae  vocis  amictus l  habet. 
mox,  ubi  pulsa  mora  est  atque  os  caeleste  solutum, 

hoc  superos  iures  more  solere  loqui, 
55  atque  "  haec  est  "  dicas  "  facundia  principe  digna  "  : 

eloquio  tantum  nobilitatis  inest. 
huic  tu  cum  placeas  et  vertice  sidera  tangas, 
scripta  tamen  profugi  vatis  habenda  putas. 
scilicet  ingeniis  aliqua  est  concordia  iunctis, 
CO      et  servat  studii  foedera  quisque  sui : 

rusticus  agricolam,  miles  fera  bella  gerentem, 

rectorem  dubiae  navita  puppis  amat. 
tu  quoque  Pieridum  studio,  studiose,  teneris, 

ingenioque  faves,  ingeniose,  meo. 
65  distat  opus  nostrum,  sed  fontibus  exit  ab  isdem  : 

artis  et  ingenuae  cultor  uterque  sumus. 
thyrsus  abest  a  te,2  gustata  3  est  laurea  nobis, 

sed  tamen  ambobus  debet  inesse  calor  : 
utque  meis  numeris  tua  dat  facundia  nervos, 
70      sic  venit  a  nobis  in  tua  verba  nitor. 

1  amicus  corr.  Heinsius 

2  abest  a  te  Rothmaler]  sublestate  (A)  vel  ubi  est  a  te  vel 
enim  vobis  *  gestata 

1  See  note  on  Ex  P.  i.  1.  46. 

2  The  Romans  laid  great  stress  on  the  grace  and  appro- 
priateness of  the  orator's  dress. 

344 


EX  PONTO,  II.  v.  43-70 

name.  You  have  been  for  long  his  companion,  you 
have  been  in  union  with  him  from  his  earliest  years, 
finding  favour  with  him  by  virtue  of  a  talent  that 
equals  your  character.  Under  your  guidance  as  a 
speaker  he  forthwith  attains  fiery  eloquence,  in  you 
he  has  one  to  lure  forth  his  words  by  your  own.  When 
you  have  finished  and  mortal  lips  have  become  quiet, 
closed  in  silence  for  a  short  space,  then  arises  the 
youth  worthy  of  the  lulean l  name,  as  rises  Lucifer 
from  the  eastern  waters,  and  as  he  stands  in  silence, 
his  posture,  his  countenance  are  those  of  an  orator, 
and  his  graceful  robe  gives  hope  of  eloquent  words.2 
Then  after  a  pause  he  opens  his  godlike  lips  and  one 
might  take  oath  that  the  gods  above  speak  in  this 
fashion.  One  might  exclaim,  "  This  is  eloquence 
worthy  of  a  prince,"  such  nobility  is  in  his  utterance. 
67  Though  you  find  favour  with  this  youth,  touching 
the  very  stars  with  your  head,  yet  you  consider  the 
writings  of  an  exiled  bard  wrorthy  of  consideration. 
Surely  there  is  some  bond  of  harmony  between 
kindred  spirits,  each  keeping  the  compacts  that 
belong  to  his  pursuit.  The  peasant  loves  the  farmer, 
the  soldier  him  who  wages  war,  the  sailor  the  pilot  of 
the  swaying  ship.  You  too  are  possessed  with  de- 
votion to  the  Pierians,  studious  one  ;  you,  talented 
yourself,  look  with  favour  on  my  talent.  Our  work 
differs,  but  it  derives  from  the  same  sources  ;  we  are 
both  worshippers  of  liberal  art.  You  have  no  thyrsus, 
I  have  tasted  the  laurel ; 3  but  there  should  be  fire 
in  us  both :  as  my  numbers  receive  vigour  from 
your  eloquence,  so  I  lend  brilliance  to  your  words. 

8  Thyrsus,  a  symbol  of  poetic  inspiration  which  was  also 
thought  to  be  caused  by  tasting  laurel,  cf.  Juv.  vii.  19 
laurumque  momordit.  But  the  text  is  far  from  certain. 

345 


OVID 

iure  igitur  studio  confinia  carmina  vestro 
et  commilitii  sacra  tuenda  putas. 

pro  quibus  ut  maneat,  de  quo  censeris,  amicus, 

comprecor  ad  vitae  tempora  summa  tuae, 
75  succedatque  suis l  orbis  moderator  2  habcnis  : 
quod  mecum  populi  vota  precantur  idem. 


VI. 

Carmine  Graecinum,  qui  praesens  voce  solebat, 

tristis  ab  Euxinis  Naso  salutat  aquis. 
exulis  haec  vox  est  :  praebet  mihi  littera  linguam, 

et  si  non  liceat  scribere,  mutus  ero. 
5  corripis,  ut  debes,  stulti  peccata  sodalis, 

et  mala  me  meritis  ferre  minora  doces.3 
vera  facis,  sed  sera  meae  convicia  culpae  : 

aspera  confesso  verba  remitte  reo. 
cum  poteram  recto  transire  Ceraunia  velo, 
10      ut  fera  vitarem  saxa,  monendus  eram. 

nunc  mihi  naufragio  quid  prodest  discere  4  facto, 

qua  mea  debuerit  currere  cumba  via  ? 
brachia  da  lasso  potius  prendenda  natanti, 

nee  pigeat  mento  supposuisse  manum. 
15  idque  facis,  faciasque  precor :  sic  mater  et  uxor, 

sic  tibi  sint  fratres  totaque  salva  domus, 
quodque  soles  ammo  semper,  quod  voce  precari, 

omnia  Caesaribus  sic  tua  facta  probes. 

1  tuis  a  moderatus  3  doles  corr.  Faber 

4  dicere 

346 


EX  PONTO,  II.  18  v.  71— vi. 

By  right  then  you  think  my  poetry  connected  with 
your  pursuit  and  you  believe  that  the  rites  of  our 
common  warfare  should  be  preserved.  Therefore 
may  the  friend  through  whom  you  win  esteem 
remain,  I  pray,  yours  unto  the  last  moment  of  your 
life,  and  may  he  come  to  the  control  of  the  world 
with  his  own  reins.  This  is  at  once  my  prayer  and 
that  of  the  people. 


VI.  To  GRAECINUS 

In  verse,  Graecinus,  that  Naso  who  used  to  greet 
you  face  to  face  in  spoken  words,  greets  you  sadly 
from  the  Euxine  waters.  An  exile's  voice  is  this  ; 
letters  furnish  me  a  tongue,  and  if  I  may  not  write,  I 
shall  be  dumb. 

5  You  reprove  as  in  duty  bound  the  sins  of  your 
foolish  friend,  showing  me  that  the  evils  that  I  suffer 
are  less  than  my  deserts.  You  are  right,  but  too  late 
is  your  reproof  of  my  fault  :  relax  the  harshness  of 
your  words  for  an  accused  who  has  confessed.  At 
the  time  when  I  could  have  passed  Ceraunia  with 
standing  sails,  so  as  to  avoid  the  cruel  reefs,  then  it 
was  that  I  should  have  had  your  warning.  Now 
after  my  shipwreck  how  does  it  profit  me  to  learn 
what  course  my  bark  should  have  run  ?  Rather 
extend  an  arm  to  the  weary  swimmer's  grasp  ;  repent 
not  of  supporting  his  chin  with  your  hand.  That  you 
are  doing  and,  I  pray,  will  continue  to  do  :  so  may 
your  mother  and  wife,  so  may  your  brothers  and  all 
your  house  be  free  from  harm,  and — as  you  are  wont 
to  pray  with  heart,  with  voice — so  for  all  your  acts 
may  you  find  the  Caesars'  approval.  Base  will  it  be  if 

347 


OVID 

turpe  erit  in  miseris  veteri  tibi  rebus  amico 
20      auxilium  nulla  parte  tulisse  tuum, 

turpe  referre  pedem,  nee  passu  stare  tenaci, 

turpe  laborantem  deseruisse  ratem, 
turpe  sequi  casum  et  fortunae  cedere  1  amicum, 

et,  nisi  sit  felix,  esse  negare  suuni. 
25  non  ita  vixerunt  Strophio  atque  Agamemnone  nati, 

non  haec  Aegidae  Pirithoique  fides  : 
quos  prior  est  mirata,  sequens  mirabitur  aetas, 

in  quorum  plausus  tota  theatra  sonant, 
tu  quoque  per  durum  servato  tempus  amico 
30      dignus  es  in  tantis  nomen  habere  viris. 
dignus  es,  et,  quoniam  laudem  pietate  mereris, 

non  erit  officii  gratia  surd  a  tui. 
crede  mihi,  nostrum  si  non  mortale  futurum  est 

carmen,  in  ore  frequens  posteritatis  eris. 
35  fac  modo  permaneas  lasso,  Graecine,  fidelis, 

duret  et  in  longas  impetus  iste  moras. 
quae  tu  cum  praestes,  remo  tamen  utor  in  aura, 
ncc  nocet  admisso  subdere  calcar  equo. 


VII. 

Esse  salutatum  vult  te  mea  littera  primum 

a  male  pacatis,  Attice,  missa  Getis. 
proxima  subsequitur,  quid  agas,  audire  voluntas,2 

et  si,  quidquid  3  agis,  sit  tibi  cura  mei. 
6  nee  dubito  quin  sit,  sed  me  timor  ipse  malorum 

saepe  supervacuos  cogit  habere  metus. 
da  veniam,  quaeso,  nimioque  ignosce  timori. 

tranquillas  etiam  naufragus  horret  aquas. 

1  accedere,  at  cf.  Tib.  iv.  13.  17  a  voluptas 

8  si  quid  vel  iam  si  quid  vet  nunc  quicquid 

348 


EX  PONTO,  II.  vi.  19— vii.  8 

you  have  aided  in  his  misery  an  old  friend  in  no  way ; 
base  to  step  back,  not  standing  with  steadfast  foot ; 
base  to  abandon  a  ship  in  distress  ;  base  to  follow 
chance,  to  surrender  a  friend  to  fortune,  and  should 
he  prosper  not,  to  disclaim  him  as  your  own.  Not  such 
was  the  life  of  the  sons  l  of  Strophius  and  Aga- 
memnon ;  not  such  was  the  loyalty  of  Aegeus'  son  2 
and  Pirithous.  Them  past  ages  have  admired,  and 
ages  to  come  will  admire  ;  to  applaud  them  the  whole 
theatre  roars.  You  too  who  have  held  to  your  friend 
through  times  of  stress  deserve  to  have  a  name  among 
such  great  men.  You  deserve  it — yes,  and  since 
praise  is  the  just  reward  of  your  loyalty,  my  gratitude 
for  your  service  shall  never  be  dumb.  Trust  me,  if 
my  song  is  not  destined  to  die,  you  shall  be  often  on 
the  lips  of  posterity.  Only  see  that  you  remain 
faithful  to  your  weary  friend,  Graecinus,  and  let  your 
impulse  endure  for  long.  Though  you  do  me  this 
service,  yet  I  use  the  oar  while  I  have  the  breeze,  nor 
is  it  harmful  to  spur  on  the  galloping  steed. 


VII.  To  ATTICUS 

My  letter  sent  from  the  scarce  pacified  Getae 
wishes  first  to  salute  you,  Atticus  ;  close  follows  the 
wish  to  hear  how  you  fare  and  whether,  no  matter 
what  your  occupation,  you  have  any  interest  in  me. 
I  doubt  not  you  have,  yet  the  very  dread  of  mis- 
fortunes often  forces  me  to  feel  empty  fears.  Grant 
me  indulgence,  I  pray,  pardon  my  excessive  dread  : 
the  shipwrecked  man  shrinks  even  from  calm  waters. 

1  Pylades  and  Orestes.  2  Theseus. 

349 


OVID 

qui  semel  est  laesus  fallaci  piscis  ab  hamo, 
10      omnibus  unca  cibis  aera  subesse  putat. 
saepe  canem  longe  visum  fugit  agna  lupumque 

credit,  et  ipsa  suam  nescia  vital  opem. 
membra  reformidant  mollem  quoque  saucia  tactum, 

vanaque  sollicitis  incutit1  umbra  metum. 
15  sic  ego  Fortunae  telis  confixus  iniquis 
pectore  concipio  nil  nisi  triste  meo. 
iam  mihi  fata  liquet  coeptos  servantia  cursus 

per  sibi  consuetas  semper  itura  vias  : 
observare  deos,  ne  quid  mihi  cedat  amice, 
20      verbaque  Fortunae  vix  puto  posse  dari. 
est  illi  curae  me  perdere,  quaeque  solebat 
esse  levis,  constans  et  bene  certa  nocet. 
crede  mihi,  si  sum  veri  tibi  cognitus  oris 

(nee  planis  2  nostris  casibus  esse  puter  3), 
25  Cinyphiae  segetis  citius  numerabis  aristas, 

altaque  quam  multis  floreat  Hybla  thy  mis, 
et  quot  aves  motis  nitantur  in  aere  pinnis, 

quotque  natent  pisces  aequore,  cerius  eris, 
quam  tibi  nostrorum  statuatur  summa  laborum, 
30      quos  ego  sum  terra,  quos  ego  passus  aqua, 
nulla  Getis  toto  gens  est  truculentior  orbe  ; 

sed  tamen  hi  nostris  ingemuere  malis. 
quae  tibi  si  memori  coner  perscribere  versu, 

Ilias  est  fati  longa  futura  mei. 
35  non  igitur  vereor4  quo5  te  rear  esse  verendum, 

cuius  amor  nobis  pignora  mille  dedit, 
sed  quia  res  timida  est  omnis  miser,  et  quia  longo 

est 
tempore  laetitiae  ianua  clausa  meae. 

1  inmutat  vel  indtat  vd  concitat  corr.  £~  -  plan  us 

3  puter  Ehwald]  potcs  vel  potest  vtl  solet 
4  verear  6  quo]  qua  vel  quia  vel  quod 

350 


EX  PONTO,  II.  vii.  9-38 

The  fish  once  wounded  by  the  treacherous  hook 
fancies  the  barbed  bronze  concealed  in  every  bit  of 
food.  Ofttimes  the  lamb  flees  the  distant  sight  of  a 
dog  in  the  belief  that  it  is  a  wolf,  unwittingly  avoiding 
its  own  protector.  A  wounded  body  shrinks  from 
even  a  delicate  touch  ;  an  empty  shadow  inspires  the 
anxious  with  fear.  So  I,  pierced  by  the  unjust  shafts 
of  Fortune,  fashion  in  my  breast  naught  but  gloomy 
thoughts.  Already  it  is  clear  to  me  that  fate, 
keeping  to  the  course  begun,  will  continue  always  to 
run  in  a  familiar  path  ;  the  gods  are  watching  that  no 
kind  concession  be  made  me  and  I  think  Fortune  can 
scarcely  be  cheated.  She  is  working  to  destroy  me — 
she  who  used  to  be  fickle,  is  now  steadfastly  and  with 
determination  injuring  me.  O  believe,  if  I  have 
been  known  to  you  as  a  speaker  of  truth,  (and  though 
my  misfortunes  are  clear  I  may  not  be  thought 
so,)1  you  will  more  quickly  count  the  ears  of  a  crop 
by  the  Cinyphus,  or  the  many  blooms  of  thyme  upon 
lofty  Hybla,  or  count  the  number  of  birds  floating  in 
air  on  vibrant  wings  or  the  fishes  swimming  in  the 
waters,  than  reckon  the  sum  of  woes  I  have  borne 
on  land,  on  sea. 

31  No  race  in  the  wide  world  is  grimmer  than  the 
Getae,  yet  they  have  lamented  over  my  misfortunes. 
Should  I  attempt  to  a  full  record  of  them  in  verse, 
there  will  be  a  long  Iliad  of  my  fate.  I  fear,  there- 
fore, not  that  I  think  I  need  have  fear  of  you  of  whose 
love  I  have  received  a  thousand  pledges,  but  because 
every  unfortunate  is  a  thing  full  of  fear,  because  for  a 
long  time  the  door  of  joy  has  been  closed  for  me. 

1  The  text  of  1.  24  is  uncertain.  The  meaning  seems  to 
be  that  the  poet's  woes  though  real  are  incredible. 

351 


OVID 

iam  dolor  in  morem  venit  meus,  utque  caducis 
40      percussu  crebro  saxa  cavantur  aquis, 
sic  ego  continuo  Fortunae  vulneror  ictu, 

vixque  habet  in  nobis  iam  nova  plaga  locum, 
nee  magis  assiduo  vomer  tenuatur  ab  usu, 

nee  magis  est  curvis  Appia  trita  rotis, 
45  pectora  quam  mea  sunt  serie  calcata 1  malorum, 

et  nihil  inveni,  quod  mihi  ferret  opem. 
artibus  ingenuis  quaesita  est  gloria  multis  : 

infelix  peril  dotibus  ipse  meis. 
vita  prior  vitio  caret  et  sine  labe  peracta  est 2  : 
50      auxilii  misero  nil  tulit  ilia  mihi. 

culpa  gravis  precibus  donatur  saepe  suorum  : 

omnis  pro  nobis  gratia  muta  fuit. 
adiuvat  in  duris  aliquos  3  praesentia  rebus  : 

obruit  hoc  absens  vasta  procella  caput. 
55  quis  4  non  horruerit  tacitarn  5  quoque  Caesaris  iram  ? 

addita  sunt  poenis  aspera  verba  meis. 
fit  fuga  temporibus  levior  :  proiectus  in  aequor 

Arcturum  subii  Pleiadumque  minas. 
saepe  solent  hiemen  placidam  sentire  carinae  : 
60      non  Ithacae  puppi  saevior  unda  fuit. 

recta  fides  comitum  poterat  mala  nostra  levare  : 

ditata  est  spoliis  perfida  turba  meis. 
mitius  exilium  faciunt  loca  :  tristior  ista 

terra  sub  ambobus  non  iacet  ulla  polls. 
65  est  aliquid  patriis  vicirium  finibus  esse  : 

ultima  me  tellus,  ultimus  orbis  habet. 
praestat  et  exulibus  pacem  tua  laurea,  Caesar  : 

Pontica  finitimo  terra  sub  hoste  iacet. 


caecata  2  est  om.  A  3  aliqu 

4  quis  lleinsiua]  quae  vd  quern  (que)  obruerit  (-et) 

6  taciti 


1 


EX  PONTO,  II.  vn.  39-68 

My  grief  has  already  become  a  habit ;  as  the  falling 
drops  by  their  constant  force  hollow  the  rock,  so  am  I 
wounded  by  the  steady  blows  of  fate  until  now  I  have 
scarce  space  upon  me  for  a  new  wound.  The  plough- 
share is  not  more  thinned  by  constant  use,  the  Appia l 
more  worn  by  the  curving  wheels  than  my  heart  is 
worn  by  the  hoof-beats  of  my  continuous  misfortunes ; 
nothing  have  I  found  to  bring  me  aid. 

47  By  liberal  arts  many  have  sought  renown  ;  I, 
unhappy  that  I  am,  have  been  ruined  by  my  own 
dower.  My  earlier  life  was  free  from  fault,  was  lived 
without  blemish,  but  it  has  brought  me  no  succour  in 
my  misfortune.  Serious  fault  is  often  pardoned  to 
the  prayers  of  one's  friends  ;  on  my  behalf  all  favour 
has  been  mute.  Some  are  helped  in  their  difficulties 
by  the  fact  that  they  are  present  ;  I  was  absent 
when  this  mighty  tempest  overwhelmed  me.  Who 
would  not  dread  even  the  unspoken  wrath  of  Caesar  ? 
My  punishment  was  enhanced  by  harsh  words.  The 
season  makes  exile  lighter  ;  I,  driven  forth  upon 
the  sea,  endured  Arcturus  and  the  Pleiads'  threats. 
Ships  are  often  wont  to  experience  a  mild  winter  ; 
not  the  Ithacan  ship  2  had  a  fiercer  sea.  The  up- 
right loyalty  of  comrades  could  have  alleviated  my 
misfortunes,  but  a  treacherous  crowd  grew  rich  on  my 
spoils.  Places  render  exile  milder  ;  a  more  dismal 
land  than  this  lies  not  under  either  pole.  'Tis  some- 
thing to  be  near  the  confines  of  one's  native  land  ; 
the  remotest  land,  the  remotest  world  possesses 
me.  Thy  laurel,  Caesar,  assures  peace  even  to 
exiles  ;  the  Pontic  land  lies  exposed  to  a  neighbouring 

1  The  via  Appia,  the  great  highway  from  Rome  to  Capua. 
2  The  ship  of  Ulysses. 

2  A  353 


OVID 

tempus  in  agrorum  cultu  consumere  dulce  est  : 
70      non  patitur  verti  barbarus  hostis  humum. 
temperie  caeli  corpusque  animusque  iuvatur  : 

frigore  perpetuo  Sarmatis  ora  riget. 
est  in  aqua  dulci  non  invidiosa  voluptas  : 

aequoreo  bibitur  cum  sale  mixta  palus. 
76  omnia  deficiurit.     animus  tamen  omnia  vincit : 

ille  etiam  vires  corpus  habere  facit. 
sustineas  ut  onus,  nitendum  vertice  pleno  est, 

aut,  flecti  nervos  si  patiere,  cades, 
spes  quoque  posse  mora  mitescere  principis  iram, 
80      vivere  ne  nolim  deficiamque,  cavet. 
nee  vos  parva  datis  pauci  solacia  nobis, 

quorum  spectata  est  per  mala  nostra  fides, 
coepta  tene,  quaeso,  neque  in  aequore  desere  navem, 

meque  simul  serva  iudiciumque  tuum. 

VIII. 

Redditus  est  nobis  Caesar  cum  Caesare  nuper, 

quos  mini  misisti,  Maxime  Cotta,  deos  ; 
utque  tuum  munus  nurnerum,  quern  debet,  haberet, 

est  ibi  Caesaribus  Li  via  iuncta  suis. 
5  argentum  felix  omnique  beatius  auro, 

quod,  fuerit  pretium  cum  rude,  numen  habet. 
non  mihi  divitias  dando  maiora  dedisses, 

caeli tibus  missis  nostra  sub  ora  tribus. 
est  aliquid  spectare  deos  et  adesse  putare, 
10      et  quasi  cum  vero  numine  posse  loqui. 
354 


EX  PONTO,  II.  vn.  69— vm.  10 

foe.  'Tis  pleasant  to  spend  one's  time  in  tilling  the 
fields  ;  the  barbarian  foe  permits  no  sod  to  be  turned. 
By  a  mild  climate  body  and  mind  are  helped  ;  eternal 
cold  freezes  the  Sarmatian  coast.  There  is  in  sweet 
water  a  pleasure  that  stirs  no  envy  ;  I  drink  marshy 
water  mingled  with  the  salt  of  the  sea.  I  lack  all 
things,  but  courage  conquers  all  things  ;  it  even 
causes  the  body  to  have  strength.  To  support  the 
burden  you  must  struggle  with  head  held  stiff  or 
else,  if  you  allow  your  sinews  to  yield,  you  will  fall. 
Even  the  hope  that  'tis  possible  time  may  soften  the 
prince's  wrath,  prevents  me  from  aversion  to  life 
and  utter  breakdown.  And  you  give  me  no  small 
comfort — the  few  whose  fidelity  has  been  tested  by 
my  misfortunes.  Keep  on  as  you  have  begun,  I 
pray,  do  not  abandon  the  ship  upon  the  sea  ;  pre- 
serve me  and  with  me  your  own  conviction. 


VIII.  To  COTTA  MAXIMUS 

I  have  recently  received  a  Caesar  in  company  of  a 
Caesar  l — the  gods  whom  you  sent  me,  Cotta  Maxi- 
mus  ;  and  that  your  gift  might  be  complete,  Livia 
appeared  there  united  with  her  Caesars.  Happy 
silver  !  more  blessed  than  any  gold  !  For  though  but 
recently  rough  metal  'tis  now  divine  !  Not  by  the 
gift  of  riches  could  you  have  given  me  a  greater 
present  than  the  three  deities  whom  you  have  sent 
to  my  shores. 

9  'Tis  something  to  behold  gods  and  think  them 
present,  to  have  the  power  to  speak  as  it  were  with  a 

1  Perhaps  a  medallion  with  likenesses  of  the  imperial 
three  :  Augustus,  Tiberius,  and  Livia. 

355 


OVID 

quantum  ad  te,1  redii,  nee  me  tenet  ultima  tellus, 

utque  prius,  media  sospes  in  urbe  moror. 
Caesareos  video  vultus,  velut  ante  videbarn  : 

vix  miius  voti  spes  fuit  ulla  mihi ; 
15  utque  salutabam  numen  caeleste,  saluto. 

quod  reduci  tribuas,  nil,  puto,  maius  habes. 
quid  nostris  oculis  nisi  sola  Palatia  desunt  ? 

qui  locus  ablato  Caesare  vilis  erit. 
hunc  ego  cum  spectem,  videor  mihi  cernere  Romam  ; 
20      nam  patriae  faciem  sustinet  ille  suae. 
fallor  an  irati  rnihi  sunt  in  imagine  vultus, 

torvaque  nescio  quid  forma  minantis  habet  ? 
parce,  vir  inmenso  maior  virtutibus  orbe, 

iustaque  vindictae  supprime  lora  tuae. 
25  parce,  precor,2  saecli  decus  indelebile  3  nostri, 

terrarum  dominum  quern  tua  cura  facit. 
per  patriae  nomen,  quae  te  tibi  carior  ipso  est, 

per  numquam  surdos  in  tua  vota  deos, 
perque  tori  sociam,  quae  par  tibi  sola  reperta  est, 
30      et  cui  maiestas  non  onerosa  tua  est, 
perque  tibi  similem  virtutis  imagine  natum, 

moribus  adgnosci  qui  tuus  esse  potest, 
perque  tuos,  vel  avo  dignos,  vel  patre  nepotes, 

qui  veniunt  magno  per  tua  iussa  gradu, 
35  parte  leva  minima  nostras  et  contrahe  poenas, 

daque,  procul  Scythico  qui  sit  ab  hoste,  locum, 
et  tua,  si  fas  est,  a  Caesare  proxime  Caesar, 

numina  sint  precibus  non  inimica  meis. 
sic  fera  quam  primum  pavido  Germania  vultu 
40      ante  triumphantis  serva  feratur  equos  : 

1  quanta  meridi  (A]  vel  quanta  (quantum  vel  quando) 
a  te  (ad  me)  redii,  etc.  corr.  Ehwald 

2  precor]  puer 

8  admirabile  vel  o  venerabile 
356 


EX  PONTO,  II.  vin.  11-40 

real  deity.  So  far  as  you  could  effect  it,  I  have 
returned,  I  am  no  more  in  a  remote  land  ;  as  of  old  I 
am  safe  in  the  midst  of  the  city.  I  see  the  faces  of 
the  Caesars  as  I  used  before  to  see  them  ;  of  this 
prayer's  fulfilment  I  have  scarce  had  any  hope.  I 
salute  the  deity  of  heaven  as  I  used  to  do  :  even 
should  I  return,  no  greater  gift,  I  think,  have  you  to 
bestow  upon  me.  What  do  my  eyes  lack  save  only 
the  Palatine  ?  And  that  place,  if  Caesar  is  removed, 
will  be  worthless.  As  I  gaze  on  him  I  seem  to  look  on 
Rome,  for  he  embodies  the  likeness  of  our  fatherland. 
Am  I  wrong  or  do  the  features  of  his  portrait  show 
anger  against  me  ?  Is  his  form  somehow  grim  and 
threatening  ?  Spare  me,  thou  who  art  mightier  in 
thy  virtues  than  the  measureless  world,  check  the 
reins  of  thy  just  vengeance.  Spare  me,  thou  im- 
perishable glory  of  our  age,  lord  of  the  world  because 
of  thine  own  care.  By  the  name  of  our  country  which 
is  dearer  to  thee  than  thyself,  by  the  gods  who  are 
never  deaf  to  thy  prayers,  by  thy  consort l  who  alone 
has  been  found  equal  to  thee,  who  feels  not  thy 
majesty  a  burden,  by  thy  son  2  like  thee  a  model  of 
virtue  whose  character  causes  him  to  be  recognized 
as  thine,  by  thy  grandsons  3  worthy  of  their  grand- 
sire  or  their  sire,  who  advance  with  mighty  stride 
along  the  path  of  thy  command,  lighten  in  but  the 
least  degree  and  restrict  my  punishment :  grant  me 
an  abode  far  from  the  Scythian  enemy. 

37  And  if  'tis  right,  O  Caesar  2  nearest  to  Caesar, 
— let  not  thy  divinity  be  hostile  to  my  prayers.  So 
may  wild  Germany  soon  be  borne  with  fear-stricken 
countenance  a  slave  before  thy  triumphant  steeds  ; 

i  Livia.  *  Tiberius. 

3  Germanicus  (by  adoption)  and  Drusus  sons  of  Tiberius. 

357 


OVID 

sic  pater  in  Pylios,  Cumaeos  mater  in  annos 

vivant,  et  possis  filius  esse  dm. 
tu  quoque,  conveniens  ingenti  nupta  marito, 

accipe  non  dura  supplicis  aure  preces. 
45  sic  tibi  vir  sospes,  sic  sint  cum  prole  nepotes, 

cumque  bonis  nuribus  quod  peperere  nurus. 
sic,  quern  dira  tibi  rapuit  Germania  Drusum, 

pars  fuerit  partus  sola  caduca  tui. 
sic  tibi  mature  fraterni  funeris  ultor 
50      purpureus  niveis  films  instet  equis. 

adnuite  o  !  timidis,  mitissima  numina,  votis. 

praesentis  aliquid  prosit  habere  deos. 
Caesaris  adventu  tuta1  gladiator  harena 

exit,  et  auxilium  non  leve  vultus  habet. 
65  nos  quoque  vestra  iuvat2  quod,  qua  licet,  ora  videmus, 

intrata  est  superis  quod  domus  una  tribus. 
felices  illi,  qui  non  simulacra,  sed  ipsos, 

quique  deum  coram  corpora  vera  vident. 
quod  quoniam  nobis  invidit  inutile  fatum, 
60      quos  dedit  ars,  vultus  effigiemque  colo. 
sic  homines  novere  deos,  quos  arduus  aether 

occulit,  et  colitur  pro  love  forma  lovis. 
denique,  quae  mecum  est  et  erit  sine  fine,  cavete, 

ne  sit  in  inviso  vestra  figura  loco. 
G5  nam  caput  e  nostra  citius  cervice  recedet, 

et  patiar  fossis  lumen  abire  genis, 
quam  caream  raptis,  o  publica  numina,  vobis  : 
vos  eritis  nostrae  portus  et  ara  fugae. 

1  tola  ;  tuto  Owen  2  iuvet 

1  Nestor.  "~~~ 

358 


EX  PONTO,  II.  vm.  41-68 

so  may  thy  father  attain  the  years  of  the  Pylian  l  and 
thy  mother  those  of  the  Cumaean  2  and  mayst  thou 
be  for  long  a  son.  Thou,  too,  spouse  suited  to  a 
mighty  husband,  listen  with  no  cruel  ear  to  the 
prayers  of  a  suppliant.  So  may  thy  husband  be 
safe,  so  thy  grandsons  and  their  offspring,  so  thy  good 
sons'  wives  and  their  children.  So  may  that  Drusus,3 
whom  cruel  Germany  tore  away  from  thee,  be  the 
only  one  of  thy  descendants  to  fall.  So  in  the  near 
future  may  the  avenger  of  his  brother's  death  drive, 
in  purple  clad,  the  snow-white  steeds.  Assent  to  my 
timorous  prayers,  ye  kind  deities  !  Let  it  profit 
me  somewhat  to  have  gods  present  before  me.  At 
Caesar's  coming  the  gladiator  leaves  the  arena  in 
safety,  for  his  countenance  brings  no  slight  aid.  I 
too  am  helped  because,  so  far  as  I  am  allowed,  I  gaze 
upon  the  features  of  you  all,  because  three  of  the 
celestials  have  entered  one  home.  Happy  they  who 
see  not  likenesses,  but  the  reality,  the  real  persons 
of  the  gods  face  to  face.  This  has  been  begrudged 
me  by  hostile  fate,  and  so  I  cherish  the  countenances 
and  figures  which  art  has  produced.  Thus  it  is  that 
men  know  the  gods  whom  the  lofty  aether  conceals  ; 
they  worship  in  Jupiter's  stead  the  likeness  of  Jupiter. 
In  fine  make  it  your  care  that  these  your  likenesses, 
which  are  with  me  and  shall  ever  be  with  me,  be  not  in 
a  hateful  place.  For  my  head  shall  sooner  leave  my 
neck,  sooner  will  I  gouge  out  my  eyes  from  my 
cheeks,  than  be  deprived,  O  deities  of  the  state,  of 
you.  You  shall  be  the  harbour,  the  altar  of  my  exile. 

*  The  Cumaean  Sibyl  who  was  700  years  old  when  she 
prophesied  to  Aeneas. 

8  The  father  of  Germanicus.  He  was  killed  in  Germany 
by  a  fall  from  his  horse. 

359 


OVID 

vos  ego  complectar,  Geticis  si  cingar  ab  armis, 
70      utque  meas  aquilas,  ut  mea l  signa  sequar. 
aut  ego  me  fallo  nimiaque  cupidine  ludor, 

aut  spes  exilii  commodioris  adest. 
nam  minus  et  minus  est  facies  in  imagine  tristis, 

visaque  sunt  dictis  adnuere  ora  meis. 
75  vera  precor  fiant  timidae  praesagia  mentis, 
iustaque  quamvis  est,  sit  minor  ira  dei. 


IX. 

Regia  progenies,  cui  nobilitatis  origo 

nomen  in  Eumolpi  pervenit  usque,  Coty, 
fama  loquax  vestras  si  iam  pervenit  ad  auris, 

me  tibi  finitimi  parte  iacere  soli, 
6  supplicis  exaudi,  iuvenum  mitissime,  vocem, 

quamque  potes,  profugo  (nam  potes)  adfer  opem. 
me  fortuna  tibi — de  qua  quod  non  queror,2  hoc  est — 

tradidit,  hoc  uno  non  inimica  mihi. 
excipe  naufragium  non  duro  litore  nostrum, 
10      ne  fuerit  terra  tutior  unda  tua. 

regia,  crede  mihi,  res  est  succurrere  lapsis, 

convenit  et  tanto,  quantus  es  ipse,  viro. 
fortunam  decet  hoc  istam  :  quae  maxima  cum  sit, 

esse  potest  ammo  vix  tamen  aequa  tuo. 
15  conspicitur  numquam  meliore  potentia  causa, 

quam  quotiens  vanas  non  sinit  esse  preces. 
hoc  nitor  iste  tui  generis  desiderat,  hoc  est 

a  superis  ortae  nobilitatis  opus, 
hoc  tibi  et  Eumolpus,  generis  clarissimus  auctor,3 
20      et  prior  Eumolpo  suadet  Erichthonius. 

1  ut  mea]  tutaque  vel  vos  mea  vel  signa  ego  vestra,  etc. 
corr.  Korn  8  querar 

360 


EX  PONTO,  II.  vin.  69— ix.  20 

You  will  I  embrace  when  I  am  circled  about  by  Getic 
arms  ;  you  will  I  follow  as  my  eagles,  as  my  standards. 
71  Either  I  am  self-deceived  or  mocked  by  excessive 
longing,  or  else  the  hope  of  a  more  comfortable  exile 
is  at  hand.  For  less  and  less  stern  are  the  features 
of  the  portrait — the  lips  seem  to  consent  at  my  words. 
I  pray  that  the  premonitions  of  my  fearful  heart  may 
become  the  truth,  that  although  the  god's  wrath  is 
just,  it  may  grow  less. 


IX.  To  KING  COTYS 

Cotys,  scion  of  kings,  whose  noble  line  extends 
even  to  the  name  of  Eumolpus,  if  talkative  report  has 
already  come  to  your  ears  that  I  am  lying  in  a  neigh- 
bouring land,  hear  the  voice  of  a  suppliant,  gentle 
youth,  and  bear  what  aid  thou  canst — and  thou  hast 
the  power — to  an  exile.  Fortune — of  whom  in  this 
one  thing  I  complain  not — has  given  me  over  to  thee  ; 
in  this  alone  she  is  not  hostile  to  me.  Harbour  my 
shipwreck  on  no  cruel  shore",  let  not  the  waters  prove 
safer  than  thy  land.  'Tis  a  royal  deed,  I  assure  thee, 
to  help  the  fallen,  it  befits  a  man  as  mighty  as  thou 
art.  This  becomes  thy  position  which,  great  though 
it  is,  can  scarce  be  equal  to  thy  spirit.  Power  is 
never  seen  in  a  better  cause  than  when  it  does  not 
permit  prayers  to  be  vain.  This  that  brilliant  birth 
of  thine  desires,  this  is  the  task  of  a  nobility  sprung 
from  those  above.  This  Eumolpus,  the  illustrious 
founder  of  thy  race,  and  before  Eumolpus  Erich- 

*  generis  .  .  auctor]  opus  hoc  tibi  suadet  erato 


OVID 

hoc  tecum  commune  deo  est,1  quod  uterque  rogati 

supplicibus  vestris  ferre  soletis  opem. 
rmmquid  2  erit,  quare  solito  dignemur  honore 

numina,  si  demas  velle  iuvare  deos  ? 
25  luppiter  oranti  surdas  si  praebeat  auris, 

victima  pro  templo  cur  cadat  icta  lovis  ? 
si  pacem  nullam  pontus  mihi  praestet  eunti, 

irrita  Neptuno  cur  ego  tura  feram  ? 
vana  laborantis  si  fallat  vota  coloni, 
30      accipiat  gravidae  cur  suis  exta  Ceres  ? 

nee  dabit  intonso  iugulum  caper  hostia  Baccho, 

musta  sub  adducto  si  pede  nulla  fluent. 
Caesar  ut  imperil  moderetur  frena  precamur, 

tarn  bene  quod  patriae  consulit  ille  suae. 
35  utib'tas  igitur  magnos  hominesque  deosque 

efficit,  auxiliis  quoque  favente  suis. 
tu  quoque  fac  prosis  intra3  tua  castra  iacenti, 

o  Coty,  progenies  digna  parente  tuo. 
conveniens  homini  est  hominem  servare  voluptas, 
40      et  melius  nulla  quaeritur  arte  favor. 

quis  non  Antiphaten  Laestrygona  devovet  ?  aut  quis 

munifici  mores  improbat  Alcinoi  ? 
non  tibi  Cassandreus  pater  est  gentisve  Pheraeae,4 

quive  repertorem  torruit  arte  sua  : 
45  sed  quam  Marte  ferox  et  vinci  nescius  armis, 

tam  numquam,  facta  pace,  cruoris  amans. 
adde  quod  ingenuas  didicisse  fideliter  artes 

emollit  mores  nee  sinit  esse  feros. 
nee  regum  quisquam  magis  est  instructus  ab  illis, 
50      mitibus  aut  studiis  tempora  plura  dedit. 

1  deos  (dels  vel  del) :  deo  est  Riese 
8  namquid  8  profugus  intra 

4  genitorve  (gentisque)  caphereus  (caphareus) 
362 


EX  PONTO,  II.  ix.  21-50 

thonius,  enjoin.  This  thou  hast  in  common  with  a 
god  :  that  ye  are  both  wont  to  aid  your  petitioners. 
Will  there  be  any  reason  for  us  to  grant  their  usual 
honour  to  the  gods,  if  one  robs  them  of  their  will  to 
help  ?  If  Jupiter  should  turn  deaf  ears  to  prayer, 
why  should  a  victim  fall  in  sacrifice  before  Jupiter's 
temple  ?  If  the  sea  should  offer  no  calm  for  my 
journey,  why  should  I  offer  vain  incense  to  Neptune  ? 
Should  she  cheat  the  ineffectual  prayers  of  the  toiling 
husbandman,  why  should  Ceres  receive  the  entrails 
of  a  gravid  sow  ?  The  goat  will  not  offer  his  throat  in 
sacrifice  to  unshorn  Bacchus,  if  no  must  flows  from 
beneath  the  tread  of  feet.  We  pray  that  Caesar  may 
guide  the  reins  of  the  empire  because  he  plans  so 
wisely  for  his  fatherland  ! 

35  Utility,  then,  renders  great  both  men  and  gods,  if 
each  bestows  in  favour  his  own  peculiar  aid.  Do  thou 
also  avail  him  who  lies  within  thy  camp,  Cotys,  son 
worthy  of  thy  father.  'Tis  a  fitting  pleasure  for  man 
to  save  man  ;  there  is  no  better  way  of  seeking 
favour.  Who  does  not  curse  Antiphates  the  Lae- 
strygonian  ?  Who  disapproves  the  character  of 
generous  Alcinous  ?  Thou  hast  for  a  father  no  Cas- 
sandrean1  or  man  of  Pheraean  race,2  or  him3  who 
burned  the  inventor  by  his  own  craft,  but  one  who 
though  fierce  in  war  and  unacquainted  with  defeat  in 
arms,  was  yet  never  fond  of  blood  when  peace  was 
made.  Note  too  that  a  faithful  study  of  the  liberal 
arts  humanizes  character  and  permits  it  not  to  be 
cruel.  No  king  has  been  better  trained  by  them  or 
given  more  time  to  humane  studies.  Thy  verse 

1  Apollodorus  of  Cassandrea,  a  cruel  tyrant. 
2  i.e.  descended  from  Alexander,  tyrant  of  Pherae. 
8  Phalaris,  see  Tr.  Hi.  11.  39  ff. 

363 


OVID 

carmina  testantur,  quae,  si  tua  nomina  demas, 

Threicium  iuvenem  composuisse  negem  ; 
neve  sub  hoc  tractu  vates  foret  unicus  Orpheus, 

Bistonis  ingenio  terra  superba  tuo  est. 
65  utque  tibi  est  animus,  cum  res  ita  postulat,  arma 

sumere  et  hostili  tingere  caede  manum, 
atque  ut  es  excusso  iaculum  torquere  lacerto 

collaque  velocis  flectere  doctus  equi, 
tempora  sic  data  sunt  studiis  ubi  iusta  paternis, 
60      atque  suis  numeris l  forte  quievit  opus, 
ne  tua  marcescant  per  inertis  otia  somnos, 

lucida  Pieria  tendis  in  astra  via. 
haec  quoque  res  aliquid  tecum  mihi  foederis  affert : 

eiusdem  sacri  cultor  uterque  sumus. 
65  ad  vatem  vates  orantia  brachia  tendo, 

terra  sit  exiliis  ut  tua  fida  meis. 
non  ego  caede  nocens  in  Ponti  litora  veni, 

mixtave  sunt  nostra  dira  venena  manu  : 
nee  mea  subiecta  convicta  est  gemma  tabella 
70      mendacem  linis  imposuisse  notam. 

nee  quicquam,  quod  lege  vetor  committere,  feci : 

est  tamen  his  gravior  noxa  fatenda  mihi. 
neve  roges,  quae  sit,  stultam  conscripsimus  2  Artem  ; 

innocuas  nobis  haec  vetat  esse  manus. 
75  ecquid  praeterea  peccarim,  quaerere  noli, 

ut  lateat3  sola  culpa  sub  Arte  mea. 
quicquid  id  est,  habuit  moderatam  vindicis  iram, 

qui  nisi  natalem  nil  mihi  dempsit  humum. 
hac  quoniam  careo,  tua  nunc  vicinia  praestet, 
80      inviso  possim  tutus  ut  esse  loco. 

1  humeris  corr.  Heinsius  2  quae  (quam)  scripsimus 

8  pateat  corr.  <s 


364 


EX  PONTO,  II.  ix.  51-80 

bears  witness  ;  shouldst  thou  remove  thy  name,  I 
should  deny  that  a  Thracian  youth  was  the  com- 
poser ;  and  that  beneath  this  sky  Orpheus  might  not 
be  the  only  bard,  by  thy  talent  is  the  Bistonian  land 
made  proud.  As  thou  hast  the  courage,  when  need 
arises,  to  take  arms  and  stain  thy  hand  with  enemy's 
blood,  and  as  thou  hast  been  trained  to  hurl  the 
javelin  with  a  sweep  of  thine  arm,  or  to  guide  the 
neck  of  the  swift  horse,  so  when  just  time  has  been 
given  to  thy  sire's  pursuits  and  the  task  testing 
thy  might  in  all  its  parts  has  come  to  rest,  that  thy 
leisure  may  not  waste  away  in  idle  sleep,  thou  dost 
press  on  the  Pierian  path  towards  the  bright  stars. 

63  This  also  brings  me  a  certain  union  with  thee : 
each  is  a  worshipper  at  the  same  shrine.  As  bard  to 
bard  I  extend  my  arms  in  prayer  that  thy  land  may 
be  loyal  to  me  in  exile.  I  was  not  guilty  of  murder 
when  I  came  to  Pontus'  shores,  no  baneful  poison 
was  mixed  by  my  hand  ;  my  seal  was  not  convicted 
by  a  fraudulent  tablet  of  having  imprinted  on  the 
linen1  a  lying  mark.  I  have  done  naught  that  the 
law  forbids.  Yet  must  I  confess  a  weightier  sin. 
Ask  not  what  it  is.  But  I  have  composed  a  foolish 
"  Art  "  ;  'tis  this  prevents  my  hands  from  being 
clean.  Have  I  sinned  further  ?  Do  not  inquire — 
that  my  wrongdoing  may  hide  beneath  my  "  Art  " 
alone.  Whatever  it  is,  the  avenger's  wrath  was 
moderate.  He  took  from  me  nothing  but  my  native 
land.  Since  I  am  deprived  of  that,  let  now  thy  near- 
ness warrant  that  I  can  be  secure  in  a  place  I  hate. 

1  i.e.  the  threads  with  which  documents  were  tied  together. 

365 


OVID 

X. 

Ecquid  ab  impressae  cognoscis  imagine  cerae 
haec  tibi  Nasonem  scribere  verba,  Macer  ? 
auctorisque  sui  si  non  est  anulus  index, 

cognitane  est  nostra  littera  facta  manu  ? 
6  an  tibi  notitiam  mora  temporis  eripit  horum, 

nee  repetunt  oculi  signa  vetusta  tui  ? 
sis  licet  oblitus  pariter  gemmaeque  manusque, 

exciderit  tantum  ne  tibi  cura  mei. 
quam  tu  vel  longi  debes  convictibus  aevi, 
10      vel  mea  quod  coniunx  non  aliena  tibi  est,1 
vel  studiis,  quibus  es,  quam  nos,  sapientius  usus, 

utque  decet,  nulla  factus  es  Arte  nocens. 
tu  canis  aeterno  quicquid  restabat  Homero, 

ne  careant  summa  Troica  bella  manu. 
16  Naso  parum  prudens,  artem  dum  tradit  amandi, 

doctrinae  pretium  triste  magister  habet. 
sunt  tamen  inter  se  communia  sacra  poetis, 

diversum  quamvis  quisque  sequamur  2  iter  : 
quorum  te  memorem,  quamquam  procul  absumus, 

esse 
20      suspicor,  et  casus  velle  levare  meos. 

te  duce  magnificas  Asiae  perspeximus  urbes  : 

Trinacris  est  oculis  te  duce  visa3  meis. 
vidimus  Aetnaea  caelum  splendescere  flamma, 

subpositus  monti  quam  vomit  ore  Gigans, 
25  Hennaeosque  lacus  et  olentis  4  stagna  Palici, 
quaque  suis  Cyanen  miscet  Anapus  aquis. 
nee   procul  hinc  nymphe,    quae,  dum   fugit   Elidis 

amnem, 
tecta  sub  aequorea  nunc  quoque  currit  aqua. 

1  est  om.  8  queramur  vel  sequahir 

8  nota  4  olcntia  corr.  Zinzerling 

366 


EX  PONTO,  II.  x.  1-28 


X.  To  MACER 

Does  any  inkling  come  to  you,  Macer,  from  the 
figure  pressed  upon  the  wax  that  Naso  writes  these 
words  to  you  ?  If  the  ring  be  not  an  informant  of  its 
master,  do  you  recognize  the  letters  formed  by  my 
hand  ?  Or  is  recognition  of  these  things  stolen  from 
you  by  length  of  time,  and  do  your  eyes  not  recall  the 
symbols  of  long  ago  ?  You  may  forget  alike  seal  and 
hand  if  only  interest  in  me  has  not  dropped  from  your 
mind.  This  you  owe  to  the  association  of  long  years, 
to  my  wife's  kinship  with  you,  or  to  the  poetic  studios 
which  you  have  employed  more  wisely  than  I  ;  and 
(as  'tis  fitting),  no  %<  Art  "  has  made  you  guilty.  You 
sing  whatever  immortal  Homer  left  unsung,  that  the 
wars  of  Troy  may  not  lack  the  final  hand.1  Naso 
thoughtlessly  imparts  the  art  of  love  and  the  teacher 
has  the  harsh  reward  of  his  teaching.  There  are, 
nevertheless,  rites  common  to  all  poets — though  we 
may  each  go  our  own  separate  way — which  I  believe 
in  my  heart  that  you  remember,  even  though  we  are 
far  apart,  and  wish  to  lighten  my  misfortunes.  Under 
your  guidance  I  beheld  the  splendid  cities  of  Asia, 
under  your  guidance  I  saw  the  Trinacrian 2  land  : 
you  and  I  saw  the  sky  agleam  with  Aetna's  flame 
vomited  forth  by  the  giant 3  lying  beneath  the 
mountain,  the  lakes  of  Henna,  the  pools  of  sulphurous 
Palicus,  and  the  spot  where  Anapus  joins  Cyane  to 
his  own  waters.  Hard  by  is  the  nymph4  who  fleeing 
the  Elean  stream  runs  even  now  covered  beneath  the 

1  i.e.  the  touch  that  completes  and  perfects  a  work  of  art. 
8  Sicilian.  8  Typhon.  4  Arethusa. 

367 


OVID 

hie  mihi  labentis  pars  anni  magna  peracta  est. 
30      eheu,  quam  dispar  est  locus  ille  Getis  ! 

et  quota  pars  haec  sunt  rerum,  quas  vidimus  ambo 

te  mihi  iucundas  efficiente  vias  ! 
seu  rate  caeruleas  picta  sulcavimus  undas, 

esseda  nos  agili  sive  tulere  rota, 
35  saepe  brevis  nobis  vicibus  via  visa  loquendi, 
pluraque,  si  numeres,  verba  fuere  gradu, 
saepe  dies  sermone  minor  fuit,  inque  loquendum 

tarda  per  aestivos  defuit  hora  dies, 
est  aliquid  casus  pariter  timuisse  marinos, 
40      iunctaque  ad  aequoreos  vota  tulisse  deos. 
et  modo  res  egisse  simul,  modo  rursus  ab  illis, 

quorum  non  pudeat,  posse  referre  iocos. 
haec  tibi  cum  subeant,  absim  licet,1  omnibus  annis 

ante  tuos  oculos,  ut  rnodo  visus,  ero. 
46  ipse  quidem  certe  cum  sim  sub  cardine  mundi, 

qui  semper  liquidis  altior  extat  aquis, 
te  tamen  intueor  quo  solo  pectore  possum, 

et  tecum  gelido  saepe  sub  axe  loquor. 
hie  es,  et  ignoras,  et  ades  celeberrimus  absens, 
60      inque  Getas  media  iussus  ab  urbe  venis. 
redde  vicem,  et,  quoniam  regio  felicior  ista  est, 
istic  me  memori  pectore  semper  habe. 

XI. 

Hoc  tibi,  Rufe,  brevi  properatum  tempore  mittit 
Naso,  parum  faustae  conditor  Artis,  opus, 

ut,  quamquam  longe  toto  sumus  orbe  remoti, 
scire  tamen  possis  nos  meminisse  tui. 
1  ipsum  licet  vel  hie  sim  licet 

1  The  pole  is  often  compared  to  a  car  do  (the  pivot  on  which 
a  door  turns)  or  an  axle. 
368 


EX  PONTO,  II.  x.  29— xi.  4 

waters  of  the  sea.  Here  it  was  that  I  passed  the 
greater  part  of  a  quickly  gliding  year — alas  !  how 
unlike  that  land  to  this  of  the  Getae  !  and  how  small 
a  part  are  these  of  the  things  that  we  saw  together 
while  you  made  every  road  pleasant  for  me ! 
Whether  we  furrowed  the  blue  waves  in  a  gaily 
painted  boat  or  drove  in  a  swift- wheeled  carriage, 
often  the  way  seemed  short  through  our  interchange 
of  talk,  and  our  words,  could  you  count  them,  out- 
numbered our  steps  ;  often  the  day  was  not  long 
enough  for  our  talk — even  the  long  hours  of  summer 
did  not  suffice.  'Tis  something  to  have  feared 
together  the  perils  of  the  sea,  together  to  have  paid 
our  vows  to  the  water  gods,  to  have  done  deeds 
in  common  and  again  after  those  deeds  to  be  free 
to  utter  jests  which  bring  no  shame.  When  these 
thoughts  steal  upon  you,  absent  though  I  be,  I  shall 
be  before  your  eyes  as  if  you  had  just  seen  me.  And 
as  for  me,  though  I  dwell  beneath  the  pivot  of  the 
heavens  which  is  ever  high  above  the  clear  waters 
yet  I  behold  you  in  my  heart — my  only  way — and 
often  talk  with  you  beneath  the  icy  axle.1  You  are 
here  and  know  it  not,  you  are  full  often  by  my  side 
though  far  away,  and  you  come  at  my  bidding- from 
the  midst  of  the  city  to  the  land  of  the  Getae.  Make 
me  recompense,  and  since  yours  is  the  happier  land, 
there  keep  me  ever  in  a  remembering  heart. 

XI.  To  RUFUS 

This  work,  Rufus,  hastily  composed  in  a  brief  space, 

Naso  sends  to  you — Naso,  the  author  of  the  ill-starred 

"  Art  " — that  despite  our  separation  by  the  whole 

world's  width  you  may  know  that  I  remember  you. 

2B  369 


OVID 

6  nominis  ante  mei  venient  oblivia  nobis, 

pectore  quam  pietas  sit  tua  pulsa  meo  : 
et  prius  hanc  animam  vacuas  reddemus  in  auras, 

quam  fiat  meriti  gratia  vana  tui. 
grande  voco  lacrimas  meritum,  quibus  ora  rigabas 
10      cum  mea  concrete  sicca  dolore  forent  : 
grande  voco  meritum  maestae  solacia  mentis, 

cum  pariter  nobis  ilia  tibique  dares, 
sponte  quidem  per  seque  mea  est  laudabilis  uxor, 

admonitu  melior  fit  tamen  ilia  tuo. 
15  namque  quod  Hermionae  Castor  fuit,  Hector  luli, 

hoc  ego  te  laetor  coniugis  esse  meae. 
quae  ne  dissimilis  tibi  sit  probitate  laborat, 

seque  tui  vita  sanguinis  esse  probat. 
ergo  quod  fuerat  stimulis  factura  sine  ullis, 
20      plenius  auctorem  te  quoque  nancta  facit. 
acer  et  ad  palmae  per  se  cursurus  honores, 

si  tamen  horteris,  fortius  ibit  equus. 
adde  quod  absentis  cura  mandata  fideli 
perficis,  et  nullum  ferre  gravaris  onus. 
25  o,  referant  grates,  quoniam  non  possumus  ipsi, 

di  tibi  !   qui  referent,  si  pia  facta  vident ; 
sufficiatque  diu  corpus  quoque  moribus  istis, 
maxima  Fundani  gloria,  Rufe,  soli. 


370 


EX  PONTO,  II.  xi.  5-28 

Sooner  shall  I  forget  my  own  name  than  allow  your 
loyalty  to  be  driven  from  my  mind  ;  sooner  shall  I 
give  back  this  life  to  the  empty  air  than  gratitude  for 
your  service  become  as  naught.  A  great  service  I 
call  the  tears  which  streamed  over  your  face  when  my 
own  was  dry  with  chilling  grief.  A  great  service  I 
call  the  consolation  of  my  sorrow  when  you  bestowed 
it  at  once  upon  me  and  upon  yourself.  By  her  own 
will  and  of  herself  my  wife  deserves  all  praise,  yet 
she  is  the  better  because  of  your  admonitions  :  for 
what  Castor  was  to  Hermione,  Hector  to  lulus,1  this 
you  are,  I  rejoice  to  say,  to  my  wife.  She  strives  to 
be  not  unlike  you  in  probity,  she  proves  herself  by 
her  life  to  be  of  your  blood,  and  so  that  which  she 
would  have  done  with  no  urging,  she  does  more  fully 
because  you  are  her  sponsor.  The  mettlesome  steed 
who  will  of  his  own  accord  race  for  the  honour  of 
the  palm  will  nevertheless,  if  you  urge  him,  run 
with  greater  spirit.  And  besides  you  perform  with 
faithful  care  the  directions  of  one  who  is  absent ; 
there  is  no  burden  that  you  object  to  carrying.  O 
may  the  gods  recompense  you,  since  I  have  not  the 
power  ;  and  they  will  recompense  if  they  but  see 
deeds  of  loyalty.  May  you  long  have  health  to 
uphold  your  character,  Rufus,  chief  glory  of  Fundi's 
land  ! 

1  i.e.  uncle.     Creusa,   mother  of  lulus  (Ascanius),  was 
Hector's  sister. 


371 


LIBER  TERTIUS 
I. 

Aequor  lasonio  pulsatum  remige  primum, 

quaeque  nee  hoste  fero  nee  nive,  terra,  cares, 
ecquod  erit  tempus  quo  vos  ego  Naso  relinquam 

in  minus  hostili  iussus  abesse  loco  ? 
5  an  mihi  barbaria  vivendum  semper  in  ista, 

inque  Tomitana  condar  oportet  humo  ? 
pace  tua,  si  pax  ulla  est  tua,  Pontica  tellus, 

finitimus  rapido  quam  terit  hostis  equo, 
pace  tua  dixisse  velim,  tu  pessima  duro 
10      pars  es  in  exilio,  tu  mala  nostra  gravas. 
tu  neque  ver  sentis  cinctum  florente  corona, 

tu  neque  messorum  corpora  nuda  vides. 
nee  tibi  pampineas  autumnus  porrigit  uvas  : 

cuncta  sed  inmodicum  tempora  frig  us  babet.1 
15  tu  glacie  freta  vincta  tenes,2  et  in  aequore  piscis 

inclusus  tecta  saepe  natavit  aqua, 
nee  tibi  sunt  fontes,  laticis  nisi  paene  marini, 

qui  potus  dubium  sistat  alatne  sitim. 
rara,  neque  haec  felix,  in  aperlis  eminet  arvis 
20      arbor,  et  in  terra  est  altera  forma  maris. 

1  habent :  habet  r  8  vides 

372 


BOOK  III 
I.  To  HIS  WIFE 

0  sea  first  lashed  by  Jason's  oars,  O  land  never 
free  from  cruel  enemies  and  snows,  will  a  time  ever 
come  when  I,  Naso,  shall  leave  you,  bidden  to  an 
exile  in  a  place  less  hostile  ?     Or  must  I  ever  live  in 
such  a  barbaric  land,  am  I  destined  to  be  laid  in  my 
grave  in  the  soil  of  Tomis  ?     With  peace  from  thee  l 
— if  any  peace  thou  hast — O  land  of  Pontus,  ever 
trodden  by  the  swift  horses  of  a  neighbouring  foe, 
— with  peace  from  thee  would  I  say  :    thou  art  the 
worst  element  in  my  hard  exile,  thou  dost  increase 
the  weight  of  my  misfortunes.     Thou  neither  feelest 
spring  girt  with  wreaths  of  flowers  nor  beholdest 
the  reaper's  naked  bodies ;  to  thee  autumn  extends 
no  clusters  of  grapes ;    but  all  seasons  are  in  the 
grip   of  excessive   cold.      Thou    holdest   the   flood 
ice-bound,   and   in  the  sea   the   fishes  often  swim 
in  water  enclosed  beneath  a  roof.     Thou  hast  no 
springs  except  those  almost  of  sea  water  ;  quaff  them, 
and  doubt  whether  thirst  is  allayed  or  increased. 
Seldom  is  there  a  tree — and  that  unproductive — 
rising  in  the  open  fields,  and  the  land  is  but  the  sea 

1  A  bitter  pun  on  the  literal  meaning  of  pax  and  its 
meaning  in  the  phrase  tua  pace,  "  by  thy  leave. 

373 


OVID 

non  avis  obloquitur,  silvis  nisi  siqua  remota 1 

aequoreas  rauco  gutture  potat  aquas, 
tristia  per  vacuos  horrent  absinthia  campos, 

conveniensque  suo  rnessis  amara  loco. 
25  adde  metus,  et  quod  murus  pulsatur  ab  hoste, 

tinctaque  mortifera  tabe  sagitta  madet, 
quod  procul  haec  regio  est  et  ab  omni  devia  cursu, 

nee  pede  quo  quisquam  nee  rate  tutus  eat. 
non  igitur  mirum,  finem  quaerentibus  horum 
30      altera  si  nobis  usque  rogatur  humus. 

te  magis  est  mirum  non  hoc  evincere,  coniunx, 

inque  meis  lacrimas  posse  tenere  mails, 
quid  facias,  quaeris  ?  quaeras  hoc  scilicet  ipsum, 

invenies,  vere  si  reperire  voles. 
35  velle  parum  est  :  cupias,  ut  re  potiaris,  oportet, 

et  faciat  somnos  haec  tibi  cura  breves, 
velle  reor  multos  :  quis  enim  mini  tarn  sit  iniquus, 

optet  ut  exilium  pace  carere  meum  ? 
pectore  te  toto  cunctisque  incumbere  nervis 
40      et  niti  pro  me  nocte  dieque  decet. 

utque  iuvent  alii,  tu  debes  vincere  amicos, 

uxor,  et  ad  partis  prima  venire  tuas. 
magna  tibi  imposita  est  nostris  persona  libellis  : 

coniugis  exemplum  diceris  esse  bonae. 
45  hanc  cave  degeneres.     ut  sint  praeconia  nostra 

vera,  vide  famae  quod  tuearis  opus, 
ut  nihil  ipse  querar,  tacito  me  fama  queretur, 

quae  debet,  fuerit  ni  tibi  cura  mei. 
exposuit  memet  populo  Fortuna  videndum, 
60      et  plus  notitiae,  quam  fuit  ante,  dedit. 

1  nisi  silvis  siqua  remotis  corr.  Ehwald 
374 


EX  PONTO,  III.  i.  21-50 

in  another  guise.  No  note  is  there  of  any  bird  save 
such  as  remote  in  the  forests  drink  the  brackish 
water  with  raucous  throat.  Bitter  wormwood  bristles 
throughout  the  empty  plains,  a  crop  suited  in  harsh- 
ness to  its  site.  Add  fears  too — the  wall  assailed  by 
the  enemy,  the  darts  soaked  in  death-dealing  cor- 
ruption, the  distance  of  this  spot  from  all  traffic,  to 
which  none  can  penetrate  in  safety  either  on  foot  or 
by  boat. 

29  No  wonder  then  if  I  seek  an  end  of  this  and  beg 
constantly  for  another  land.  Tis  a  greater  wonder 
that  thou,  my  wife,  dost  not  prevail  in  this,  that 
thou  canst  restrain  thy  tears  at  my  misfortunes. 
What  art  thou  to  do,  thou  askest  ?  Ask  thyself  this 
very  question  ;  thou  wilt  discover,  if  thou  hast  true 
will  to  find  it  out.  To  wish  is  not  enough  ;  thou 
shouldst  have  a  passion  to  win  thy  end,  and  this  care 
should  make  thy  slumber  brief.  Many,  I  think,  wish 
it  ;  for  who  can  be  so  hard  upon  me  as  to  desire  my 
place  of  exile  to  be  severed  from  peace  ?  With  thy 
wrhole  heart,  with  every  sinew  thou  shouldst  work  and 
strive  for  me  night  and  day.  And  to  have  others  aid 
me  thou  shouldst  win  our  friends,  my  wife,  and  come 
foremost  thyself  to  support  thy  part. 

43  Great  is  the  role  imposed  upon  thee  in  my  books  : 
thou  art  called  the  model  of  a  good  wife.  Beware 
thou  fallest  not  from  that :  that  I  may  have  pro- 
claimed the  truth,  look  to  the  work  that  fame  has 
wrought  and  guard  it  well.  Though  I  myself  make 
no  complaint,  whilst  I  am  dumb  fame  will  complain, 
as  she  ought,  shouldst  thou  not  have  regard  for  me. 
Fortune  has  set  me  forth  to  be  viewed  of  all  the  people, 
she  has  given  me  more  celebrity  than  I  had  of  yore. 

375 


OVID 

notior  est  factus  Oapaneus  a  fulminis  ictu  : 

notus  humo  mersis  Amphiaraus  equis. 
si  minus  errasset,  notus  minus  esset  Ulixes  : 

magna  Philoctetae  vulnere  fama  suo  est. 
55  si  locus  est  aliquis  tanta  inter  nomina  parvis, 

nos  quoque  conspicuos  nostra  ruina  facit. 
nee  te  nesciri  patitur  mea  pagina,  qua  non 

inferius  Coa  Bittide l  nomen  habes. 
quicquid  ages  igitur,  scaena  spectabere  magna, 
60      et  pia  non  paucis  2  testibus  uxor  eris. 
crede  mihi,  quotiens  laudaris  carmine  nostro, 

qui  legit  has  laudes,  an  mereare  rogat. 
utque  favere  reor  plures  virtutibus  istis, 

sic  tua  non  paucae  carpere  facta  volent. 
65  quarum  tu  praesta  ne  livor  dicere  possit 

"  haec  est  pro  miseri  lenta  salute  viri." 
cumque  ego  denciam,  nee  possim  ducere  currum, 

fac  tu  sustineas  debile  sola  hi  gum. 
ad  medicum  specto  venis  fugientibus  aeger  : 
70      ultima  pars  animae  dum  mihi  res  tat,  ades  ; 
quodque  ego  praestarem,  si  te  magis  ipse  valerem, 

id  mihi,  cum  valeas  fortius  ipsa,  refer, 
exigit  hoc  socialis  amor  foedusque  maritum  : 

moribus  hoc,  coniunx,  exigis  ipsa  tuis. 
75  hoc  domui  debes,  de  qua  censeris,  ut  illam 

non  magis  officiis  quam  probitate  colas, 
cuncta  licet  facias,  nisi  eris  laudabilis  uxor, 

non  poterit  credi  Marcia  culta  tibi. 

1  bit  tibi  de  etc.  corr.  Merkel  2  parvis 

1  The  house  of  the  Fabii. 
2  The  wife  of  Fabius  Maximus,  cf.  Ex  P.  i.  2.  139. 

376 


EX  PONTO,  III.  i.  51-78 

Capaneus  was  made  more  famous  by  the  lightning's 
shock  ;  Amphiaraus  achieved  fame  when  his  steeds 
were  swallowed  up  in  the  earth.  If  Ulysses  had 
wandered  less,  he  would  have  been  less  famous  ; 
Philoctetes'  great  name  is  due  to  his  wound.  If 
there  is  some  place  among  such  mighty  names  for 
the  humble,  I  too  am  become  a  man  of  mark  by 
reason  of  my  fall. 

57  And  thou  art  not  permitted  by  my  pages  to  be 
unknown  ;  thou  hast  a  name  not  inferior  to  that  of 
Coan  Bittis.  Whatever  therefore  thou  shalt  do, 
thou  shalt  be  viewed  upon  a  mighty  stage,  thou  shalt 
be  to  many  witnesses  a  loyal  wife.  I  assure  thee,  as 
often  as  thou  art  praised  in  my  verse,  he  who  reads 
the  praise  asks  whether  thou  dost  deserve  it.  And 
just  as  many,  I  think,  approve  such  virtues,  so  women 
not  a  few  will  seek  shortcomings  in  thy  deeds.  'Tis 
for  thee  to  make  sure  their  jealousy  can  never  say, 
"  This  is  she  who  is  indifferent  to  her  wretched 
husband's  safety  !  " 

67  Since  I  am  failing,  no  longer  able  to  draw  the  car, 
see  that  thou  dost  alone  support  the  weakening  yoke. 
I  am  a  sick  man,  gazing  with  failing  pulse  upon  the 
doctor  ;  while  the  last  of  life  remains  to  me,  stand  by 
to  help  ;  and  what  I  would  myself  supply,  were  I 
stronger  than  thou,  that  grant  to  me  since  thou  art 
thyself  the  stronger.  This  is  demanded  by  our 
united  love  and  marriage  compact ;  this,  my  wife, 
thou  dost  demand  by  virtue  of  thine  own  character. 
This  thou  dost  owe  to  the  house l  by  which  thou  hast 
thy  esteem,  that  thou  mayst  cherish  it  not  more  in 
duty  than  in  uprightness.  Thou  mayst  do  all  things, 
but  unless  thou  shalt  be  a  praiseworthy  wife,  it  will 
not  be  believed  that  thou  hast  honoured  Marcia.2 

377 


OVID 

nee  sumus  indigni :  nee,  si  vis  vera  fateri, 
80    debetur  meritis  gratia  nulla  meis. 

redditur  ilia  quidem  grandi  cum  faenore  nobis, 

nee  te,  si  cupiat,  laedere  rumor  habet. 
sed  tamen  hoc  factis  adiunge  prioribus  unum, 

pro  nostris  ut  sis  ambitiosa  malis. 
85  ut  minus  infesta  iaceam  regione  labora, 

clauda  nee  officii  pars  erit  ulla  tui. 
magna  peto,  sed  non  tamen  invidiosa  roganti  : 

utque  ea  non  teneas,  tuta  repulsa  tua  est. 
nee  mini  suscense,1  totiens,  si  carmine  nostro, 
90      quod  facis,  ut  facias,  teque  imitere,  rogo. 
fortibus  adsuevit  tubicen  prodesse,  suoque 

dux  bene  pugnantis  incitat  ore  viros. 
nota  tua  est  probitas  testataque  tempus  in  omne  ; 

sit  virtus  etiam  non  probitate  minor. 
95  non  tibi  Amazonia  est  pro  me  sumenda  securis, 

aut  excisa  levi  pelta  gerenda  manu. 
numen  adorandum  est,  non  ut  mihi  fiat  amicum, 

sed  sit  ut  iratum,  quam  fuit  ante,  minus, 
gratia  si  nulla  est,  lacrimae  tibi  gratia  fient. 
100      hac  potes  aut  nulla  parte  movere  deos. 

quae  tibi  ne  desint,  bene  per  mala  nostra  cavetur  : 

meque  viro  flendi  copia  dives  adest ; 
utque  meae  res  sunt,  omni,  puto,  tempore  flebis, 

has  fortuna  tibi  nostra  ministrat2  opes. 
105  si  mea  mors  redimenda  tua,  quod  abominor,  esset, 

Admeti  coniunx,  quam  sequereris,  erat. 
aemula  Penelopes  fieres,  si  fraude  pudica 
instantis  velles  fallere  nupta  procos. 

1  succense  2  ministret 

1  The  shield  was  shaped  somewhat  like  a  crescent,  one 
side  being  indented. 

a  Aicestis. 
378 


EX  PONTO,  III.  i.  79-108 

79  Nor  am  I  unworthy,  and  if  thou  art  willing  to 
confess  the  truth,  some  return  is  owed  to  my  services. 
That  return  thou  dost  indeed  make  to  me  with  usury, 
nor  could  rumour,  even  if  she  should  wish,  injure  thee. 
But  none  the  less  add  this  one  thing  to  thy  previous 
deeds  :  be  the  canvasser  for  my  misfortunes.  Toil 
that  I  may  rest  in  a  less  hostile  region  and  no  part  of 
thy  duty  will  halt.  Great  is  my  request,  yet  not  one 
that  brings  odium  on  the  petitioner  ;  shouldst  thou 
not  attain  it,  thy  defeat  involves  no  danger.  And  be 
not  wroth  with  me  if  so  many  times  in  my  song  I  ask 
thee  to  do  what  thou  art  already  doing  and  to 
imitate  thyself.  The  brave  have  often  been  helped 
by  the  trumpeter,  and  the  general  urges  on  with  his 
own  lips  men  who  are  fighting  well.  Thy  probity  is 
known  and  witnessed  for  all  time  ;  let  thy  courage 
too  be  not  inferior  to  thy  probity.  Thou  hast  not  to 
take  up  in  my  behalf  the  Amazon's  battle-axe  nor 
bear  with  thy  frail  hand  the  indented l  target.  Thou 
has  to  implore  a  deity,  not  to  become  friendly  to  me, 
but  less  angry  than  heretofore.  If  grace  thou  findest 
not,  tears  shall  win  thee  grace ;  by  this  or  by  no 
means  canst  thou  move  the  gods.  That  they  will 
not  fail  thee  is  well  assured  by  my  misfortunes  ; 
with  me  as  husband  of  tears  thou  hast  rich  store  ; 
and  as  things  are  with  me  thou  wilt  weep,  I  think,  at 
all  times— these  are  the  means  that  my  fortune 
renders  to  thee.  If  thou  hadst  to  redeem  my  death 
at  the  price  of  thine  own — away  with  the  thought ! — 
Admetus'  wife  2  would  be  a  model  to  follow.  Thou 
wouldst  become  a  rival  of  Penelope  if  by  chaste 
deceit  thou,  a  bride,  shouldst  wish  to  beguile  insistent 

379 


OVID 

si  comes  extinct!  Manes  sequerere  mariti, 
110      esset  dux  facti  Laodamia  tui. 

Ipbias  ante  oculos  tibi  erat  ponenda  volenti 

corpus  in  accensos  mittere  forte  rogos. 
morte  nihil  opus  est,  nihil  Icariotide  tela. 

Caesaris  est  coniunx  ore  precanda  tuo, 
115  quae  praestat  virtute  sua,  ne  prisca  vetustas 

laude  pudicitiae  saecula  nostra  premat  : 
quae  Veneris  formam,  mores  lunonis  habendo 

sola  est  caelesti  digna  reperta  toro. 
quid  trepidas  et  adire  times  ?  non  impia  Procne 
120      filiave  Aeetae  voce  movenda  tua  est, 

nee  nurus  Aegypti,  nee  saeva  Agamemnonis  uxor, 

Scyllaque,  quae  Siculas  inguine  terret  aquas, 
Telegonive  par  ens  vertendis  nata  figuris, 

nexaque  nodosas  angue  Medusa  comas, 
125  femina  sed  princeps,  in  qua  Fortuna  videre 

se  probat  et  caecae  crimina  falsa  tulit : 
qua  nihil  in  terris  ad  finem  solis  ab  ortu 

clarius  excepto  Caesare  mundus  habet. 
eligito  tempus  captatum  saepe  rogandi, 
130      exeat  adversa  ne  tua  navis  aqua. 

non  semper  sacras  reddunt  oracula  sortis, 

ipsaque  non  omni  tempore  fana  patent, 
cum  status  urbis  erit,  qualem  nunc  auguror  esse, 

et  nullus  populi  contrahet  ora  dolor, 
135  cum  domus  Augusti,  Capitoli  more  colenda, 

laeta,  quod  est  et  sit,  plenaque  pacis  erit, 
turn  tibi  di  faciant  adeundi  copia  fiat, 

profectura  aliquid  turn  tua  verba  putes. 

1  Penelope,  daughter  of  Icarius.  2  Medea. 

8  A  Danaid,  i.e.  one  who  slew  her  husband. 
4  Clytaemestra.  6  Circe. 

S80 


EX  PONTO,  III.  i.  109-138 

suitors.  If  thou  shouldst  follow  thy  dead  husband  to 
the  shades  Laodamia  would  guide  thee  in  thy  deed. 
Iphias  would  have  to  be  kept  before  thine  eyes, 
shouldst  thou  wish  to  hurl  thyself  bravely  upon  the 
kindled  pyre.  But  thou  hast  no  need  of  death,  no 
need  of  the  Icarian  woman's l  web  ;  thy  lips  must 
pray  to  Caesar's  spouse,  who  by  her  virtue  gives 
surety  that  the  olden  time  conquers  not  our  age  in 
praise  of  chastity ;  who,  with  the  beauty  of  Venus,  the 
character  of  Juno,  has  been  found  alone  worthy  to 
share  the  divine  couch.  Why  dost  tremble  and  fear 
to  approach  her  ?  No  impious  Procne  nor  daughter  2 
of  Aeetes  must  needs  be  touched  by  thy  words,  nor 
daughter-in-law 8  of  Aegyptus,  nor  cruel  wife 4  of 
Agamemnon,  nor  Scylla,  terrifying  with  her  loins  the 
waters  of  Sicily,  nor  mother 5  of  Telegonus,  born 
with  the  power  to  transform  human  shape,  nor 
Medusa,  with  locks  bound  and  snarled  with  serpents, 
but  the  foremost  of  women,  who  proves  that  Fortune 
has  the  power  of  sight  and  has  falsely  borne  the 
charge  of  blindness  ;  than  whom  the  universe  holds 
nothing  more  illustrious  from  the  sun's  rising  to  his 
setting,  save  only  Caesar.  Choose  well  the  time, 
already  oft  essayed,  to  make  thy  petition,  lest  thy 
bark  put  forth  into  an  adverse  sea.  Not  always  do 
oracles  give  forth  their  holy  prophecies,  not  at  all 
times  are  even  the  shrines  open.  When  the  condi- 
tion of  the  city  shall  be  such  as  I  divine  it  now  to  be, 
and  no  sorrow  brings  a  frown  upon  the  people's  brow, 
when  Augustus's  house,  to  be  revered  as  it  were  the 
Capitol,  shall  be  happy — as  now,  I  pray,  and  ever — 
and  filled  with  peace,  then  may  the  gods  grant  thee 
an  opportunity  to  approach,  then  thou  mayst  believe 
that  thy  words  will  be  of  some  avail.  If  she  is  busy 

381 


OVID 

siquid  aget  maius,  differ  tua  coepta  caveque 
140      spem  festinando  praecipitare  meam. 

nee  rursus  iubeo  dum  sit  vacuissima  quaeras  : 
corporis  ad  curam  vix  vacat  ilia  sui. 

omnia 

per  rerum  turbam  tu  quoque  oportet  eas. 
145  cum  tibi  contigerit  vultum  lunonis  adire, 
fac  sis  personae,  quam  tueare,  memor. 
nee  factum  defende  meum  :  mala  causa  silenda  est. 

nil  nisi  sollicitae  sint  tua  verba  preces. 
turn  lacrimis  demenda  mora  est,  summissaque  terra l 
150      ad  non  mortalis  brachia  tende  pedes. 

turn  pete  nil  aliud,  saevo  nisi  ab  hoste  recedam  ; 

hostem  Fortunam  sit  satis  esse  mihi. 
plura  quidem  subeunt,  sed  conturbata  2  timore 
haec  quoque  vix  poteris  voce  tremente  loqui. 
155  suspicor  hoc  damno  fore  non  tibi.     sentiet  ilia 

te  maiestatem  pertimuisse  suam. 
nee,  tua  si  fletu  scindentur  verba,  nocebit : 
interdum  lacrirnae  pondera  vocis  habent. 
lux  etiam  coeptis  facito  bona  talibus  adsit 
160      horaque  conveniens  auspiciumque  favens. 
sed  prius  imposito  sanctis  altaribus  igni 

tura  fer  ad  magnos  vinaque  pura  deos. 
e  quibus  ante  omnis  Augustum  numen  adora 

progeniemque  piam  participemque  tori. 
165  sint  utinam  mites  soli  to  tibi  more  tuasque 
non  duris  lacrimas  vultibus  aspiciant. 

1  terrae  2  sunt  turbata  :  conturbata  T 

1  In  1.  143  the  good  manuscripts  preserve  only  the  word 
omnia.  A  stopgap  appears  in  the  later  ones,  curia  cum 
patribus  fuerit  stipata  verendis,  **  when  the  senate-house  is 
crowded  with  the  revered  fathers." 

382 


EX  PONTO,  III.  i.  139-166 

with  something  of  greater  import,  put  off  thy  purpose 
and  beware  of  ruining  my  hope  through  haste.  Nor 
again  do  I  bid  thee  seek  a  time  when  she  is  wholly 
idle — she  scarce  has  leisure  for  the  care  of  her  own 
person  .  .  .l  thou  too  shouldst  follow  amid  the  throng 
of  affairs. 

145  When  it  shall  befall  thee  to  approach  the  coun- 
tenance of  Juno,  see  that  thou  dost  maintain  the  part 
thou  hast  to  play.  Defend  not  my  deed  :  an  ill 
cause  admits  no  speech.  Let  thy  words  be  naught 
but  sorrowing  petitions.  Then  must  thou  release 
the  barrier  of  tears,  sink  to  the  earth,  and  stretch 
forth  thy  arms  towards  those  immortal  feet.  Then 
ask  nothing  except  that  I  may  withdraw  from  the 
neighbourhood  of  a  fierce  enemy  ;  let  Fortune  for 
me  be  enemy  enough.  More  comes  into  my  mind, 
but  confused  with  fear  even  this  thou  wilt  scarce  be 
able  to  utter  with  stammering  voice.  This  I  think 
will  not  harm  thee.  She  will  perceive  thy  dread  of 
her  majesty  and  if  thy  words  are  broken  by  sobbing 
it  will  do  no  harm  ;  for  tears  sometimes  have  the 
weight  of  spoken  words. 

169  See  also  that  thou  hast  a  lucky  day  for  such  an 
enterprise  and  a  suitable  hour  and  favouring  omens. 
But  first  kindle  a  fire  upon  the  holy  altar,  offer  incense 
and  pure  wine  to  the  great  gods.  Of  them  all  and 
before  all  worship  the  deity  of  Augustus,  his  loyal 
offspring  and  his  consort.  May  they  be  propitious 
to  thee  in  their  wonted  fashion,  and  view  thy  tears 
with  kindly  countenances. 

383 


OVID 


II 

Quam  legis  a  nobis  missam  tibi,  Cotta,  salutem, 

missa  sit  ut  vere  perveniatque,  precor. 
namque  meis  sospes  multum  cruciatibus  aufers, 

atque1  sit  in2  nobis  pars  bona  salva  facis. 
5  curnque  labent  aliqui  iactataque  vela  relinquant, 

tu  lacerae  remanes  ancora  sola  rati. 
grata  tua  est  igitur  pietas.     ignoscimus  illis, 

qui  cum  Fortuna  terga  dedere  fugae. 
cum  feriant  unum,  non  unum  fulmina  terrent, 
10      iunctaque  percusso  turba  pavere  solet  : 
cumque  dedit  paries  venturae  signa  ruinae, 

sollicito  vacuus  fit  locus  ille  metu. 
quis  non  e  timidis  aegri  contagia  vitat, 

vicinum  metuens  ne  trahat  inde  malum  ? 
16  me  quoque  amicorum  nimio  terrore  metuque, 

non  odio,  quidam  destituere  mei. 
non  illis  pietas,  non  officiosa  voluntas 

defuit  :   adversos  extimuere  deos. 
utque  magis  cauti  possunt  timidique  videri, 
20      sic  appellari  non  meruere  mali. 

aut 3  meus  excusat  caros  ita  candor  amicos, 

utque  habeant  de  me  crimina  nulla,  favet. 
sint  hi  contenti  venia,  iactentque  4  licebit 

purgari  factum  me  quoque  teste  suum. 
25  pars  estis  pauci  melior,  qui  rebus  in  artis 

ferre  mihi  nullam  turpe  putastis  opem. 
tune  igitur  meriti  morietur  gratia  vestri, 

cum  cinis  absumpto  corpore  factus  ero. 

1  utque  *  sit  in]  ut  sit  vel  sit  ut 

8    aut]  ut  vel  at  vel  et 

4  sientque  vel  signentque  vel  fugiantque  corr.  Korn 
384 


EX  PONTO,  III.  n.  1-28 


II.  To  COTTA 

The  "Health,"1  Cotta,  of  my  sending  which  you 
read  here,  may  it,  I  pray,  be  sent  in  truth  and  reach 
you.  For  your  weal  takes  away  much  from  my 
sufferings,  causing  a  good  part  of  me  to  be  well. 
When  many  fall  away  and  abandon  the  storm-blown 
sails,  you  remain  the  sole  anchor  of  the  shattered 
bark.  Grateful,  therefore,  is  your  loyalty.  I  pardon 
those  who  along  with  Fortune  have  betaken  them- 
selves to  flight.  Though  they  smite  but  one,  not  one 
alone  do  the  lightnings  affright,  and  the  throng 
around  the  stricken  ever  quakes  with  fear.  When 
a  wall  has  given  warning  of  its  coming  fall,  anxiety 
and  fear  empty  the  place.  What  timid  man  does  not 
avoid  contact  with  the  sick,  fearing  lest  he  contract 
a  disease  so  near  ?  I  too  because  of  the  excessive 
dread  and  alarm  of  my  friends,  not  because  of  their 
hatred,  was  abandoned  by  some.  They  lacked  not 
loyalty,  nor  the  will  to  duty  ;  they  dreaded  the 
hostile  gods.  They  can  be  deemed  too  cautious  and 
timid,  yet  they  have  not  deserved  to  be  called  wicked. 
Or  else  my  charity  pardons  friends  who  are  dear  to 
me  and  favours  them  so  much  that  from  me  they  bear 
no  blame.  Let  them  be  content  with  this  indulgence 
and  they  shall  be  free  to  boast  that  their  act  is 
justified  even  by  my  testimony. 

25  But  you  few  are  a  better  group,  who  in  my  straits 
thought  it  base  to  offer  me  no  aid.  So  then  will  my 
gratitude  for  your  merit  die  when  my  body  shall  be 

1  Referring  to  the  regular  opening  formula  of  Roman 
letters  :  S.D.  (salutem  dicit)  or  S.P.I),  (salutem  plurtmam 
dicit). 

fee  385 


OVID 

fallor,  et  ilia  meae  superabit  tempera  vitae, 
30      si  tamen  a  memori  posteritate  legar. 
corpora  debentur  maestis  exsanguia  bustis  : 
eftugiunt  structos  nomen  honorque  rogos. 
occidit  et  Theseus  et  qui  comitavit  Oresten  : 

sed  tamen  in  laudes  vivit  uterque  suas. 
35  vos  etiam  seri  laudabunt  saepe  nepotes, 

claraque  erit  scrip tis  gloria  vestra  meis. 
hie  quoque  Sauromatae  iam  vos  novere  Getaeque, 

et  tales  animos  barbara  turba  probat. 
cumque  ego  de  vestra  nuper  probitate  referrem 
40      (nam  didici  Getice  Sarmaticeque  loqui), 
forte  senex  quidam,  coetu  cum  staret  in  illo, 

reddidit  ad  nostros  talia  verba  sonos  : 
"  nos     quoque    amicitiae    nomen,    bone,    novimu 

hospes, 

quos  procul  a  vobis  Pontus  et  Hister l  habet. 
45  est  locus  in  Scythia,  Tauros  dixere  priores, 

qui  Getica  longe  non  ita  distat  humo. 
hac  ego  sum  terra  (patriae  nee  paenitet)  ortus  : 

consortem  Phoebi  gens  colit  ilia  deam, 
templa  manent  hodie  vastis  innixa  columnis, 
50      perque  quater  denos  itur  in  ilia  gradus. 
fama  refert  illic  signum  caeleste  fuisse  : 

quoque  minus  dubites,  stat  basis  orba  dea  : 
araque,  quae  fuerat  natura  Candida  saxi, 

decolor  adfuso  tincta  cruore  rubet. 
65  femina  sacra  facit  taedae  non  nota  iugali, 
quae  superat  Scythicas  nobilitate  nurus. 
sacrifici  genus  est,  sic  instituere  parentes, 
advena  virgineo  caesus  ut  ense  cadat. 

1  Pontus  et  HistcrJ  barbarus  ister,  etr. 
386 


EX  PONTO,  III.  n.  29-58 

consumed  to  ashes — I  am  wrong  :  it  will  outlive  the 
span  of  my  life,  if  after  all  posterity  shall  remember 
and  read  me.  The  bloodless  body  is  destined  for  the 
mournful  tomb ;  name  and  honour  escape  the  high- 
built  pyre.  Death  befell  even  Theseus  and  him  l 
who  accompanied  Orestes,  but  yet  each  still  lives  to 
his  own  renown.  You  too  shall  oft  be  praised  by  late- 
born  descendants  and  bright  shall  be  your  fame  by 
reason  of  my  writings.  Even  here  the  Sauromatians 
and  the  Getae  already  know  you  ;  such  a  spirit  as 
yours  finds  favour  with  the  barbarian  throng.  And 
when  of  late  I  was  telling  of  your  uprightness  (for  I 
have  learned  how  to  speak  Getic  and  Sarmatian),  it 
chanced  that  an  aged  man,  standing  in  the  circle, 
made  this  reply  upon  hearing  my  words,  "  We  too, 
good  stranger,  are  acquainted  with  friendship's  name 
— we  whom  the  Pontus  and  the  Hister  separate  from 
you  and  your  people.  There  is  a  place  in  Scythia — 
men  before  us  called  it  Tauri — not  so  far  from  the 
Getic  soil.  In  that  land  was  I  born  and  I  am  not 
ashamed  of  my  country.  The  people  worship 
Phoebus 's  companion  goddess.  The  temple  exists 
to-day  with  its  huge  columns  ;  by  two  score  steps  one 
enters.  The  story  goes  that  there  was  once  an  image 
of  the  deity  and,  to  remove  your  doubts,  still  stands 
the  pedestal  bereft  of  the  goddess,  and  the  altar, 
once  white  from  the  natural  colour  of  the  stone,  is 
discolored  and  red  with  stains  from  outpoured  blood. 
A  woman  who  has  not  known  the  torch  of  marriage, 
offers  the  sacrifices  —  who  surpasses  in  birth  the 
daughters  of  Scythia.  The  nature  of  the  sacrifice — 
so  our  forefathers  ordained — is  that  strangers  fall, 
slain  by  the  maiden's  sword.  Thoans  ruled  the 
1  Pylades. 

387 


OVID 

regna  Thoans  habuit  Maeotide  clams  in  ora, 
60      nee  fuit  Euxinis  notior  alter  aquis. 

sceptra  tenente  illo  liquidas  fecisse  per  auras 

nescioquam  dicunt  Iphigenian  iter. 
quam  levibus  ventis  sub  nube  per  aethera l  vectam 

creditur  his  Phoebe  deposuisse  locis. 
65  praefuerat  templo  multos  ea  rite  per  annos, 

invita  peragens  tristia  sacra  manu  : 
cum  duo  velifera  iuvenes  venere  carina 
presseruntque  suo  litora  nostra  pede. 
par  fuit  his  aetas  et  amor,  quorum  alter  Orestes, 
70      alter  erat  Py lades  2  :  nomina  fama  tenet, 
protinus  inmitem  Triviae  ducuntur  ad  aram, 

evincti  geminas  ad  sua  terga  manus. 
spargit  aqua  captos  lustrali  Graia  sacerdos, 

ambiat  ut  fulvas  infula  longa  comas. 
75  dumque  parat  sacrum,  duni  velat  tempora  vittis, 

dum  tardae  causas  invenit  ipsa  morae, 
'  non  ego  crudelis,  iuvenes,  (ignoscite)  '  dixit 

1  sacra  suo  facio  barbariora  loco, 
ritus  is  est  gentis.     qua  vos  tamen  urbe  venitis  ? 
80      quodve  parum  fausta  puppe  petistis  iter  ?  ' 
dixit,  et  audito  patriae  pia  nomine  virgo 

consortes  urbis  comperit  esse  suae. 
'  alter  ut  e  vobis  '  inquit  *  cadat  hostia  sacris, 

ad  patrias  sedes  nuntius  alter  eat.' 
86  ire  iubet  Pylades  carum  periturus  Oresten  ; 

hie  negat,  inque  vices  pugnat  uterque  mori. 
extitit  hoc  unum,  quo  non  convenerit  illis  : 

cetera  par3  concors  et  sine  lite  fuit. 
dum  peragunt  pulchri  iuvenes  certamen  amoris 
90      ad  fratrem  scriptas  exarat  ilia  notas. 

1  aequora  vel  aera  :  aethera  <T 
2  alter  et  est  pilades  vel  et  pylades  alter 

388 


EX  PONTO,  III.  n.  59-90 

kingdom,  illustrious  in  the  Maeotian  land  ;  no  other 
was  better  known  to  the  Euxine's  waters.  Whilst 
he  held  the  sceptre  they  say  that  a  certain  Iphigenia 
journeyed  through  the  clear  air.  Her,  carried  by 
light  breezes  through  the  ether,  beneath  the  shelter 
of  a  cloud,  Phoebe  established,  so  it  is  believed,  in 
this  region.  Duly  had  she  presided  over  the  temple 
for  many  years,  carrying  out  the  gloomy  rites  with  un- 
willing hand,  when  on  a  sail-bearing  ship  two  youths 
arrived  and  set  foot  on  our  shores.  Equal  they  were 
in  youth  and  love,  one  Orestes,  the  other  Pylades  : 
fame  holds  fast  their  names.  Forthwith  were  they 
led  to  Trivia's  cruel  altar,  hands  bound  behind  their 
backs.  With  lustral  water  the  Grecian  priestess 
sprinkled  the  captives  that  the  long  fillet  might 
encircle  their  yellow  locks.  While  she  prepared  the 
sacrifice,  while  she  veiled  their  temples  with  the  bands, 
while  she  found  pretexts  for  lingering  delay,  *  It  is 
not  I,'  she  said,  '  youths,  who  am  cruel ;  grant  me 
pardon.  I  perform  sacrifices  more  barbarous  than 
the  land  to  which  they  belong.  Tis  the  rite  of  the 
people.  Yet — from  what  city  come  ye  ?  On  what 
journey  have  ye  come  in  your  ill-starred  ship  ?  ' 
Thus  spake  the  pious  girl,  and  when  she  heard  the 
name  of  her  native  land,  she  discovered  that  they 
were  dwellers  in  her  own  city.  '  Let  one  of  you,' 
she  said, '  fall  as  a  victim  in  these  rites,  let  the  other 
go  a  messenger  to  the  home  of  his  fathers/  Pylades, 
bent  on  death,  bade  his  Orestes  go.  He  refuses,  and 
each  in  turn  fights  to  die.  On  this  alone  they  did 
not  agree  :  on  all  else  those  twain  were  at  one  and 
free  from  dispute.  Whilst  the  fair  youths  carry  on 
their  contest  of  love,  to  her  brother  she  traces  written 
8  pars  corr.  Naugerius 

889 


OVID 

ad  fratrem  rnandata  dabat,  cuique  ilia  dabantur 

(humanos  casus  aspice  !)  frater  erat. 
ncc  mora,  de  templo  rapiunt  simulacra  Dianae, 

clamque  per  inmensas  puppe  feruntur  aquas. 
95  mirus  amor  iuvenum  :  quamvis  abiere  tot  anni, 

in  Scythia  magnum  nunc  quoque  nomen  habent.' 
fabula  narrata  est  postquam  vulgaris  ab  iilo, 

laudarunt  omnes  facta  piamque  fidem. 
scilicet  hac  etiam,  qua  nulla  ferocior  ora  est, 
100      nomen  amicitiae  barbara  corda  movet. 
quid  facere  Ausonia  geniti  debetis  in  urbe, 

cum  tangant  duros l  talia  facta  Getas  ? 
adde  quod  est  animus  semper  tibi  mitis,  et  altae 

indicium  mores  nobilitatis  habent, 
105  quos  Volesus  patrii  cognoscat  nominis  auctor, 

quos  Numa  maternus  non  neget  esse  suos. 
adiectique  probent  genetiva  ad  nomina  2  Cottae, 

si  tu  non  esses,  interitura  domus. 
digne  vir  hac  serie,  lapso  3  succurrere  amico 
110      conveniens  istis  moribus  esse  puta. 


III. 

Si  vacat  exiguum  profugo  dare  iempus  amieo, 

o  sidus  Fabiae,  Maxime,  gentis,  ades, 
dum  tibi  quae  vidi  refero,  seu  corporis  umbra 

seu  veri  species  seu  fuit  ille  sopor. 
5  nox  erat  et  bifores  intrabat  luna  fenestras, 

mense  fere  medio  quanta  nitere  solet. 
publica  me  requies  curarum  somnus  habebat, 

fusaque  erant  toto  languida  membra  toro, 

1  diros  2  agnomina  8  lasso 

390 


EX  PONTO,  III.  ii.  91— in.  8 

letters.  To  her  brother  she  was  sending  the  missive 
and  he  to  whom  it  was  given — behold  the  fate  of 
man  ! — was  in  fact  her  brother  ! 

93  «  With  no  delay  they  snatch  from  the  temple  the 
statue  of  Diana,  and  stealthily  they  are  borne  over 
the  trackless  waters  in  their  ship.  A  marvel  was  the 
love  of  the  youths  :  though  so  many  years  have 
passed,  in  Scythia  even  now  they  have  a  great  name." 

97  After  the  telling  of  this  well-known  tale,  all 
praised  acts  of  loyal  devotion.  'Tis  clear  that  even 
on  this  shore,  than  which  none  is  wilder,  the  name  of 
friendship  affects  barbarian  hearts.  What  ought  ye 
to  do,  born  in  the  Ausom'an  city,  when  such  deeds 
move  the  stern  Getae  ?  And  besides  you  have  ever 
a  gentle  soul  and,  a  token  of  your  lofty  birth,  a 
character  which  Volesus,  the  founder  of  your  father's 
name,  would  recognize,  which  Numa  on  your  mother's 
side  would  not  refuse  to  own,  and  the  Cottae,  who 
have  been  added  to  your  natal  name — a  line  that  but 
for  your  life  would  die  out.  O  worthy  of  such  a  line, 
deem  it  in  harmony  with  such  character  to  succour 
a  fallen  friend  ! 

III.  To  MAXIMUS 

If  you  have  a  little  leisure  to  devote  to  an  exiled 
friend,  listen,  Maximus,  star  of  the  Fabian  race, 
while  I  relate  what  I  have  seen,  whether  it  was  the 
shadow  of  a  body,  the  appearance  of  a  reality,  or 
merely  a  dream. 

5  Twas  night.  The  moon  was  entering  the  double- 
shuttered  windows  with  all  her  accustomed  mid- 
month  brightness.  Sleep,  the  common  rest  from 
cares,  possessed  me,  my  inert  limbs  stretched  about 

391 


OVID 

cum  subito  pinnis  agitatus  inhorruit  aer, 
10      et  gemuit  parvo  mota  fenestra  sono. 

tcrritus  in  cubitum  relevo  mea  membra  sinistrum, 

pulsus  et  e  trepido  pectore  somnus  abit. 
stabat  Amor,  vultu  non  quo  prius  esse  solebat, 

fulcra  tenens  laeva  tristis  acerna  manu, 
15  nee  torquem  collo,  nee  habens  crinale  capillo, 

nee  bene  dispositas  comptus,  ut  ante,  comas, 
horrida  pendebant  molles  super  ora  capilli, 

et  visa  est  oculis  horrida  pinna  meis, 
qualis  in  aeriae  tergo  solet  esse  columbae, 
20      tractatam  multae  quam  tetigere  manus. 

hunc  simul  agnovi,  neque  enim  mihi  notior  alter, 

talibus  adfata  est  libera  lingua  sonis  : 
"  o  puer,  exilii  decepto  causa  magistro, 

quern  fuit  utilius  non  docuisse  mihi, 
25  hue  quoque  venisti,  pax  est  ubi  tempore  nullo, 

et  coit  adstrictis  barbarus  Hister  aquis  ? 
quae  tibi  causa  viae,  nisi  uti  mala  nostra  vidcres  ? 

quae  sunt,  si  nescis,  invidiosa  tibi. 
tu  mihi  dictasti  iuvenalia  carmina  primus  : 
30      apposui  senis  te  duce  quinque  pedes. 
nee  me  Maeonio  consurgere  carmine  nee  me 

dicere  magnorum  passus  es  acta  ducum. 
forsitan  exiguas,  aliquas  tamen,  arcus  et  ignes  * 

ingenii  vires  comminuere  mei. 
35  namque  ego  dum  canto  tua  regna  tuaeque  parentis 

in  nullum  mea  mens  grande  vacavit  opus, 
nee  satis  hoc  fuerat.     stulto  2  quoque  carmine  feci, 

Artibus  ut  posses  non  rudis  esse  meis. 
pro  quibus  exilium  misero  est  mihi  reddita  merces, 
40      id  quoque  in  extremis  et  sine  pace  locis. 

1  ignis  2  stultus 

392 


EX  PONTO,  III.  in.  9-40 

the  couch,  when  on  a  sudden  the  air  was  vibrant  with 
the  movement  of  wings  and  a  slight  creaking  sound 
arose  as  the  window  was  moved.  Startled  I  raised 
myself  upon  my  left  elbow,  and  sleep  was  driven  from 
my  trembling  breast.  There  stood  Love,  not  with 
the  face  he  used  to  have,  sadly  resting  his  left  hand 
upon  the  maple  post,  no  necklace  on  his  throat,  no 
ornament  in  his  hair,  his  locks  not  carefully  arranged 
as  of  old.  Over  his  unkempt  face  the  soft  hair  was 
drooping  ;  his  feathers  seemed  to  my  eyes  all  un- 
kempt, like  those  on  the  back  of  soaring  dove  which 
many  hands  have  touched  and  handled.  As  soon  as 
I  recognized  him — and  none  other  is  better  known  to 
me — my  tongue  became  free  and  addressed  him  in 
in  these  words.  "  Boy,  cause  of  thy  master's  exile, 
whom  it  had  been  better  for  me  not  to  teach,  hast 
thou  come  even  hither  where  peace  exists  at  no  time, 
where  the  waters  of  the  wild  Hister  feel  the  bonds  of 
frost  ?  What  reason  hast  thou  for  thy  journey  except 
to  view  my  misfortunes  ?  These,  if  thou  knowest 
it  not,  bring  reproach  upon  thee.  Thou  wert  the 
first  to  dictate  my  youthful  verse  to  me  ;  it  was 
under  thy  guidance  that  I  set  five  feet  after  six. 
Thou  didst  not  allow  me  to  reach  the  height  of 
Maeonian  song l  or  to  sing  the  deeds  of  mighty 
chieftains.  Slight  perhaps,  yet  something,  was  the 
strength  of  my  talent,  but  thy  bow  and  thy  fires 
brought  weakness.  For  whilst  I  sang  thy  sway  and 
that  of  thy  mother,  my  mind  had  room  for  no  great 
work.  Nor  was  this  all  :  by  a  foolish  poem  as  well, 
by  my  "  Art,"  I  caused  thee  to  lose  thy  inexperience. 
For  this  the  reward  of  exile  was  meted  out  to 
wretched  me,  and  that  too  in  a  land  far  away  and 

1  Epic. 

393 


OVID 

at  non  Chionides  Eumolpus  in  Orphea  talis, 

in  Phryga  nee  Satyrum  talis  Olympus  erat, 
praeinia  nee  Chiron  ab  Achille  talia  cepit, 

Pythagoraeque  ferunt  non  nocuisse  Numam. 
45  nomina  neu  referam  longum  collecta  per  aevum, 

discipulo  perii  solus  ab  ipse  meo. 
dum  damus  arma  tibi,  dum  te,  lascive,  docemus, 

haec  te  discipulo  dona  magister  habet. 
scis  tamen,  et  liquido  iuratus  dicere  possis, 
50      non  me  legitimos  sollicitasse  toros. 

scripsimus  haec  illis,  quarum  nee  vitta  pudicos 

contingit  crines  nee  stola  longa  pedes. 
die,  precor,  ecquando  didicisti  fallere  nuptas, 

et  facere  incertum  per  mea  iussa  genus  ? 
55  an  sit  ab  his  omnis  rigide  summota  libellis, 

quam  lex  furtivos  arcet  habere  viros  ? 
quid  tamen  hoc  prodest,  vetiti  si  lege  severa 

credor  adulterii  composuisse  notas  ? 
at  tu,  sic  habeas  ferientes  cuncta  sagittas, 
60      sic  numquam  rapido  lampades  igne  vacent, 
sic  regat  imperium  terrasque  coerceat  omnis 

Caesar,  ab  Aenea  qui  tibi  fratre  tuus,1 
effice,  sit  nobis  non  inplacabilis  ira, 

meque  loco  plecti  commodiore  velit." 
65  haec  ego  visus  eram  puero  dixisse  volucri, 

hos  visus  nobis  ille  dedisse  sonos  : 
"  per  mea  tela,  faces,  et  per  mea  tela,  sagittas, 

per  inatrem  iuro  Caesareumque  caput, 
nil  nisi  concessum  nos  te  didicisse  magistro, 
70      Artibus  et  nullum  crimen  inesse  tuis. 
1  tuus]  nepos 

1  Orpheus     instructed     Eumolpus     in    the     Eleusinian 
mysteries. 

2  Marsyas,  who  taught  Olympus  to  play  the  pipes. 

394 


EX  PONTO,  III.  m.  41-70 

never  at  peace.  Not  so  did  Chionian  Eumolpus 
treat  Orpheus,1  nor  Olympus  treat  the  Phrygian 
Satyr,2  nor  did  Chiron  receive  such  a  reward  from 
Achilles,  and  they  say  that  Numa  did  no  harm  to 
Pythagoras.  Not  to  repeat  the  names  amassed 
through  the  long  ages — I  am  the  only  one  who  has 
been  ruined  by  his  own  pupil.  Whilst  1  give  arms 
to  thee,  whilst  I  teach  thee,  wanton  one,  this  is 
the  reward,  with  thee  as  pupil,  that  thy  master  has. 
Yet  thou  knowest,  and  thou  couldst  swear  it  with  a 
clear  conscience,  that  I  have  not  disturbed  lawful 
wedlock.  This  I  wrote  for  those  who  have  no  modest 
locks  to  be  touched  with  the  fillet  nor  a  long  stole 
descending  to  their  feet.3  Speak,  I  beg  thee — hast 
thou  at  any  time  learned  to  deceive  brides,  rendering 
descent  uncertain  by  my  precepts  ?  Or  has  not  every 
wo  nan  been  strictly  excluded  from  these  books 
whom  the  law  protects  from  stealthy  paramours  ? 
Yet  of  what  avail  is  this  if  men  believe  that  I  have 
composed  directions  for  that  adultery  which  is  for- 
bidden by  stern  laws  ?  But  do  thou — so  mayst  thou 
possess  arrows  that  smite  all,  so  may  thy  torches 
never  lose  their  swift  flame,  so  may  Caesar,  who 
through  thy  brother  Aeneas  is  thy  kin,  guide  his 
realm  and  control  all  lands — cause  his  wrath  to  be 
not  implacable  against  me,  cause  him  to  be  willing 
that  I  be  punished  in  a  better  place/' 

65  Thus  methought  I  spoke  to  the  winged  boy,  in 
these  words  methought  he  answered  me,  "  By  my 
weapons,  the  torch  and  arrows,  by  my  mother  I 
swear,  and  by  Caesar's  head,  that  I  have  learned 
naught  but  what  is  lawful  from  thy  mastership,  that 
there  resides  no  crime  in  thine  *  Art.'  As  I  defend 

8  i.e.  for  courtesans,  not  matrons,  cf.  Tr.  ii.  245  ff. 

395 


OVID 

utque  hoc,  sic  utinam  defendere  cetera  possem  l ! 

scis  aliud,  quod  te  laeserit,  esse,  magis. 
quicquid  id  est  (neque  enim  debet  dolor  ipse  referri, 

nee  potes  a  culpa  dicere  abesse  tua) 
75  tu  licet  erroris  sub  imagine  crimen  obumbres, 

non  gravior  merito  iudicis  2  ira  fuit. 
ut  tamen  aspicerem  consolarerque  iacentem, 

lapsa  per  inmensas  est  mea  pinna  vias. 
haec  loca  turn  primum  vidi,  cum  matre  rogante 
80      Phasias  est  telis  fixa  puella  meis. 

quae  nunc  cur  iterum  post  saecula  longa  revisam, 

tu  facis,  o  castris  miles  amice  meis. 
pone  metus  igitur  :  mitescet  Caesaris  ira, 

et  veniet  votis  mollior  hora  tuis. 
85  neve  moram  timeas,  tempus,  quod  quaerimus,  instat, 

cunctaque  laetitiae  plena  triumphus  habet. 
dum  domus  et  nati.  dum  mater  Livia  gaudet, 

dum  gaudes,  patriae  rnagne  ducisque  pater, 
dum  sibi  gratatur  populus,  totamque  per  urbem 
90      omnis  odoratis  ignibus  ara  calet, 

dum  faciles  aditus  praebet  venerabilc  templum,3 

sperandum  est  nostras  posse  valere  preces." 
dixit,  et  aut  ille  est  tenues  dilapsus  in  auras, 

coeperunt  sensus  aut  vigilare  mei. 
95  si  dubitem,  faveas  quin  his,  o  Maxime,  dictis, 

Mcmnonio  cycnos  esse  colore  putem. 
sed  neque  mutatur  4  nigra  pice  lacteus  humor, 

nee,  quod  erat  candens,  fit  terebinthus  ebur. 

1  posses  *  vinSicis 

8  templum]  tempus  vel  numen  4  fuscatur 

1  Medea. 

2  The  triumph  of  Tiberius  over  Germany,  Jan.  16,  A.D.  13. 
3  Memnon  as  an  Ethiopian  was  conceived  to  be  black. 

396 


EX  PONTO,  111.  in.  7i-yo 

thee  on  this  score,  would  I  could  on  the  rest !  Thou 
knowest  there  is  another  thing  that  has  injured  thee 
more.  Whatever  this  is  (for  neither  should  the 
painful  tale  itself  be  repeated  nor  canst  thou  say  that 
thou  art  free  from  guilt),  though  thou  dost  veil 
thy  crime  under  the  guise  of  '  error '  the  wrath  of  the 
judge  was  not  too  severe.  However,  to  look  upon 
thee,  to  console  thee  downcast,  my  wings  have 
glided  over  measureless  ways.  This  region  I  first 
saw  when  at  my  mother's  request  I  pierced  the 
Phasian  maiden  l  with  my  darts.  The  reason  for  my 
second  visit  now,  after  long  ages,  is  in  thee,  friendly 
soldier  of  my  own  camp.  So  put  aside  thy  fears  ; 
Caesar 's  wrath  will  soften,  a  gentler  hour  will  be 
vouchsafed  to  thy  prayers.  Fear  not  delay  ;  the 
time  we  seek  is  close  at  hand  ;  the  triumph  2  fills 
everything  with  joy.  While  the  house  and  the 
children,  while  their  mother  Livia  rejoices,  while 
thou,  great  father  of  our  land  and  of  our  leader,  dost 
rejoice,  while  the  people  congratulate  themselves, 
and  throughout  the  city  every  altar  burns  with 
fragrant  flames,  while  the  holy  temple  affords  an  easy 
approach,  we  may  hope  that  our  prayers  can  have 
some  effect." 

93  He  spoke  and  glided  away  into  thin  air  or  else 
my  own  senses  began  to  awaken. 

95  Were  I  to  doubt  your  favour  for  these  words, 
Maximus,  I  should  believe  that  swans  are  the 
colour  of  Memnon.3  But  milk  is  not  changed  to 
black  pitch  nor  does  shining  ivory  become  terebinth. 

397 


OVID 

conveniens  animo  genus  est  tibi,  nobile  namque 
100       pectus  et  Herculeae  simplicitatis  habes. 
livor,  iners  vitium,  mores  non  exit  in  altos, 

utque  latens  ima  vipera  serpit  humo. 
mens  tua  sublirnis  supra  genus  eminet  ipsum, 

grandius  ingenio  nee  tibi  nomen  inest. 
105  ergo  alii  noceant  miseris  optentque  timeri, 

tinctaque  mordaci  spicula  felle  gerant : 
at  tua  supplicibus  domus  est  adsueta  iuvandis, 

in  quorum  numero  me,  precor,  esse  velis. 


IV. 

Haec  tibi  non  vanam  portantia  verba  salutem 

Naso  Tomitana  mittit  ab  urbe  tuus, 
utque  suo  faveas  mandat,  Rufine,  Triumpho, 

in  vestras  venit  si  tamen  ille  manus. 
6  est  opus  exiguum  vestrisque  paratibus  inpar  : 

quale  tamen  cumque  est,  ut  tueare,  rogo. 
firma  valent  per  se,  nullumque  Machaona  quaerunt. 

ad  medicam  dubius  confugit  aeger  opem. 
non  opus  est  magnis  placido  lectore  poetis  : 
10      quamlibet l  invitum  difficilemque  tenent. 
nos,  quibus  ingenium  longi  minuere  labores, 

aut  etiam  nullum  forsitan  ante  fuit, 
viribus  infirmi,  vestro  candore  valemus  : 

quern  2  mihi  si  demas,  omnia  rapta  putem. 
15  cunctaque  cum  mea  sint  propenso  nixa  favore, 

praecipuum  veniae  ius  habet  ille  liber. 

1  quemlibet  corr.  r  a  quod 

1  The  Fabii  claimed  descent  from  Hercules,  the  protector 
of  the  oppressed. 

2  Perhaps  Ex  P.  ii.  1 ,  the  poem  on  the  triumph  of  Tiberius, 
398 


EX  PONTO,  111.  m.  yy— iv.  iu 

Birth  suited  to  your  spirit  is  yours,  for  you  have  a 
noble  breast,  with  the  candour  of  Hercules.1  Envy, 
the  vice  of  cowardice,  enters  not  into  lofty  character, 
but  creeps  like  a  hidden  snake  along  the  ground. 
Your  mind  towers  aloft  above  even  your  birth,  for 
your  name  is  not  greater  than  your  character.  So 
let  others  injure  the  wretched  and  desire  to  be 
feared  ;  let  them  carry  missiles  dipped  in  corroding 
poison  ;  your  house  at  least  is  used  to  assisting 
suppliants.  In  their  number,  I  beseech  you,  count 
me  also. 

IV.  To  RUFINUS 

These  words  that  bring  no  empty  greeting  your 
Naso  sends  from  the  town  of  Tomis,  and  he  entrusts  to 
you  the  fostering  of  his  "  Triumph,"  2  Rufinus,  if  after 
all  it  has  reached  your  hands.  'Tis  a  humble  work, 
not  equal  to  your  preparations,3  yet  such  as  it  is,  he 
requests  for  it  your  guardianship.  Strong  things 
have  powers  of  their  own,  and  need  no  Machaon  4  ; 
the  sick  man  in  his  danger  has  recourse  to  the  art  of 
healing.  Great  poets  need  no  favouring  reader : 
they  hold  even  the  unwilling  or  him  who  is  hard  to 
please.  I,  whose  talent  has  been  diminished  by  long 
sorrows — or  perhaps  even  of  old  I  had  no  talent — 
weakened  now,  am  strong  in  your  generosity  ;  if 
you  take  that  from  me,  I  should  deem  all  else  torn 
away.  And  though  all  my  work  rests  upon  kindly 
favour,  that  poem  has  a  special  right  to  indulgence, 

8  Others  are  included  with  Rufinus,  cf.  vestris  (5),  vestras 
(4),  vos  (23).  Great  preparations,  including  poems,  were 
being  made  to  celebrate  the  triumph,  cf.  53  f. 

*  i.e.  no  physician. 

S99 


OVID 

spectatum  vates  alii  scripsere  triumphum  : 

est  aliquid  memori  visa  notare  manu. 
nos  ea  vix  avidam  vulgo  captata  per  aurem 
20      scripsimus,  atque  oculi  fama  fuere  mei. 
scilicet  adfectus  similes,  aut  impetus  idem 

rebus  ab  auditis  conspicuisque  venit  ! 
nee  nitor  argenti,  quern  vos  vidistis,  et  auri 

quod  mihi  defuerit,  purpuraque  ilia,  queror  : 
25  sed  loca,  sed  gentes  formatae  mille  figuris 

nutrissent  carmen  proeliaque  ipsa  meum, 
et  regum  vultus,  certissima  pignora  mentis,1 

iuvissent  aliqua  forsitan  illud  opus, 
plausibus  ex  ipsis  populi  laetoque  favore 
30      ingenium  quodvis  incaluisse  potest  : 

tamque  ego  sumpsissem  tali  clamore  vigorem, 

quam  rudis  audita  miles  ad  arma  tuba, 
pectora  sint  nobis  nivibus  glacieque  licebit 

atque  hoc,  quern  patior,  frigidiora  loco, 
35  ilia  ducis  facies  in  curru  stantis  eburno 

excuteret  frigus  sensibus  omne  meis. 
his  ego  defectus  dubiisque  auctoribus  usus 

ad  vestri  venio  iure  favoris  opem. 
nee  mihi  nota  ducum  nee  sunt  mihi  nota  locorum 
40      nomina.     materiam  non  habuere  manus. 
pars  quota  de  tantis  rebus,  quarn  fama  referre 

aut  aliquis  nobis  scribere  posset,  erat  ? 
quo  magis,  o  lector,  debes  ignoscere,  si  quid 

erratum  est  illic  praeteritumve  mihi. 
45  adde  quod  assidue  domini  meditata  querellas 

ad  laetum  carmen  vix  mea  versa  lyra  est. 
vix  bona  post  tanto  quaerenti  verba  subibant, 

et  gaudere  aliquid  res  mihi  visa  nova  est. 

1  mentis]  gen  Us 
400 


EX  PONTO,  III.  iv.  17-48 

Other  bards  have  seen  the  triumph  they  have 
described  —  'tis  something  to  note  with  faithful 
hand  what  one  has  seen — I  have  described  what  I 
have  caught  with  difficulty  in  an  eager  ear  from 
common  hearsay  ;  rumour  has  been  for  me  my  eyes. 
Forsooth  the  same  passion,  the  same  vigour  comes 
from  what  has  been  heard  and  from  what  has  been 
seen  !  Not  the  absence  of  the  gleaming  silver  or 
gold  that  you  have  seen  causes  my  complaint ;  but 
the  places,  the  peoples  in  a  thousand  forms,  the  very 
battles  would  have  fed  my  verse — the  countenances 
of  the  kings,  the  surest  indication  of  their  souls, 
would  have  aided,  somehow  perchance,  that  work. 

29  From  the  very  applause  and  glad  approval  of  the 
people  any  talent  can  catch  the  flame  ;  I  should  have 
won  vigour  from  such  acclaim  even  as  the  raw  recruit 
when  he  hears  the  trumpet  call  to  arms.  Though 
my  breast  be  colder  than  snow  or  ice — colder  even 
than  this  land  which  I  endure — the  aspect  of  that 
general  standing  in  the  ivory  car  would  drive  all  cold 
from  my  senses. 

37  Lacking  all  this  and  using  vague  sources,  rightly 
do  I  resort  to  the  aid  of  your  favour.  I  know  not  the 
names  of  the  chieftains,  I  know  not  the  names  of  the 
places  ;  there  was  no  material  for  my  hands.  How 
small  a  part  of  such  mighty  events  could  rumour 
bring  me  or  some  friend  write  !  The  more  then,  my 
reader,  ought  you  to  grant  me  pardon  if  I  have  erred 
or  omitted  anything  therein.  Add  too  that  my  lyre 
for  ever  conning  its  master's  plaints  could  scarcely 
turn  to  a  song  of  rejoicing.  Happy  words  after  so 
long  a  time  responded  with  difficulty  to  my  quest ; 
to  rejoice  at  anything  seemed  to  me  a  new  tiling,  and 

2D  401 


OVID 

utque  reformidant  insuetum  lumina  solem, 
60      sic  ad  laetitiam  mens  mea  segnis  erat. 

est  quoque  cunctarum  novitas  carissima  *  rerum, 

gratiaque  officio,  quod  mora  tardat,  abest. 
cetera  certatim  de  magno  scrip  La  triumpho 

iam  pridem  populi  suspicor  ore  legi. 
55  ilia  bibit  sitiens  lector,  mea  pocula  plenus  : 
ilia  recens  pota  est,  nostra  tepebit  aqua, 
non  ego  cessavi,  nee  fecit  inertia  serum  : 

ultima  me  vasti  sustinet  ora  freti. 
dum  venit  hue  rumor  properataque  carmina  mint 
60      factaque  eunt  ad  vos,  annus  abisse  potest. 
nee  minimum  refert,  intacta  rosaria  primus, 

an  sera  carpas  paene  relicta  manu. 
quid  mirum,  lectis  exhausto  floribus  horto, 
si  duce  non  facta  est  digna  corona  tuo  2  ? 
65  deprecor  hoc  3  :  vatum  4  contra  sua  carmina  ne  quis 

dicta  putet !  pro  se  Musa  locuta  mea  est. 
sunt  mihi  vobiscum  communia  sacra,  poetae, 

in  vestro  miseris  si  licet  esse  choro. 
magnaque  pars  anirnae  mecum  vixistis,  amici : 
70      hac  ego  vos  absens  nunc  quoque  parte  colo. 
sint  igitur  vestro  mea  commendata  favore 

carmina,  non  possum  pro  quibus  ipse  loqui. 
scripta  placent  a  morte  fere,  quia  laedere  vivos 

livor  et  iniusto  carpere  dente  solet. 
75  si  genus  est  mortis  male  vivere,  terra  moratur, 
et  desunt  fatis  sola  sepulchra  meis. 

1  calidissima  2  suo  corr.  Owen 

8  haec  vel  o  4  vates 

402 


EX  PONTO,  III.  iv.  49-76 

as  eyes  shrink  before  the  sun  to  which  they  have  been 
unaccustomed,  so  towards  joyousness  my  mind 
moved  slowly.  Timeliness  also  is  the  most  precious 
of  all  things,  and  that  homage  which  is  delayed 
receives  no  favour.  Others  have  vied  in  writing  of 
the  mighty  triumph  and  for  a  long  time  now,  I 
suppose,  the  people  have  been  reading  them.  These 
things  thirsty  readers  have  drunk  ;  to  my  bowls  they 
come  with  thirst  already  slaked  :  that  drink  is  fresh, 
mine  will  be  stale. 

57 1  have  not  dallied,  idleness  has  not  made  me 
slow ;  I  am  living  on  the  most  remote  coast  of  the 
vast  sea.  While  news  is  coming  to  me  and  hasty 
verse  is  being  composed  and  when  composed  is 
travelling  to  you,  a  year  may  pass.  It  matters  not 
a  little  whether  one  is  first  in  the  untouched  rose- 
garden  or  with  late  hand  plucks  blooms  which  have 
been  almost  passed  by.  What  wonder,  when  the 
flowers  have  been  gathered  until  the  garden  is 
stripped,  if  a  chaplet  has  been  twined  not  worthy  of 
your  leader ! 

65  This  I  disavow  :  let  no  poet  think  these  words 
uttered  in  derogation  of  his  verse  ;  my  Muse  has 
but  spoken  in  her  own  behalf.  I  have  rites  in 
common  with  you,  ye  poets — if  you  allow  the  un- 
fortunate a  place  in  your  guild.  Your  life  with  me 
was  a  great  part  of  my  soul,  my  friends  ;  even  now 
in  absence  I  continue  thus  to  cherish  you.  Do  you 
then  grant  the  favour  of  your  commendation  to  verse 
for  which  I  cannot  plead  myself.  Writings  oft  find 
favour  after  death,  since  malice  is  wont  to  injure  the 
living,  gnawing  with  unjust  tooth.  If  to  live  in 
wretchedness  is  a  kind  of  death,  then  earth  is  a 
loiterer  and  my  fate  lacks  only  the  tomb.  In  fine 

403 


OVID 

denique  opus  curae  culpetur  ut  undique  nostrae, 

officium  nemo  qui  reprehendat  erit. 
ut  desint  vires,  tamen  est  laudanda  voluntas  : 
80      hac  ego  contentos  auguror  esse  deos. 

haec  facit  ut  veniat  pauper  quoque  gratus  ad  aras, 

et  placeat  caeso  non  minus  agna  bove. 
res  quoque  tanta  fuit,  quantae  subsistere  summo 

Aeneadum 1  vati  grande  fuisset  onus. 
85  ferre  etiam  molles  elegi  tarn  vasta  triurnphi 

pondera  disparibus  non  potuere  rotis. 
quo  pede  nunc  utar,  dubia  est  sententia  nobis  : 

alter  enim  de  te,  Rhene,  triumphus  adest. 
inrita  motorum  2  non  sunt  praesagia  vatum  : 
90      danda  lovi  laurus,  dum  prior  ilia  viret. 

nee  mea  verba  legis,  qui  sum  summotus  ad  Histrum. 

non  bene  pacatis  flumina  pota  Getis  : 
ista  dei  vox  est,  deus  est  in  pectore  nostro, 

haec  duce  praedico  vaticinorque  deo. 
95  quid  cessas  currum  pompamque  par  are  triumphis, 

Li  via  ?  dant  nullas  iam  tibi  bella  moras. 
perfida  damnatas  Germania  proicit  hastas. 

iam  pondus  dices  omen  habere  meum. 
crede,  brevique  fides  aderit.    geminabit  honorem 
100      filius,  et  iunctis,  ut  prius,  ibit  equis. 

prome,  quod  inicias  umeris  victorious,  ostrum  : 

ipsa  potest  solitum  nosse  corona  caput : 
scuta  sed  et  galeae  gemmis  radientur  et  auro, 

stentque  super  vinctos  3  trunca  tropaea  viros  : 

1  enidos  vel  aenidos  vel  aeneidos  corr.  Ehwald 
2  votorum  corr.  Heinsius  3  iunctos  vel  victos 

1  Vergil.  2  Tiberius, 

404 


EX  PONTO,  III.  iv.  77-104 

though  the  result  of  my  toil  be  everywhere  dis- 
approved, none  will  there  be  to  blame  my  loyalty. 
Even  though  I  lack  the  strength,  yet  the  will  is 
praiseworthy  ;  with  this,  I  divine,  the  gods  are  con- 
tent. This  it  is  which  makes  even  the  poor  man  well 
received  when  he  approaches  the  altar,  and  a  lamb 
receives  no  less  favour  than  a  slaughtered  ox. 

83  The  theme  too  was  great  enough  to  have  formed 
a  heavy  burden  even  for  the  mighty  bard  l  of  the 
Aeneadae.  Moreover  frail  couplets  could  not  sup- 
port the  weight  of  so  vast  a  triumph  upon  their 
uneven  wheels.  What  metre  I  am  now  to  use  I 
am  in  doubt :  for  a  second  triumph  is  close  at  hand 
over  thee,  O  Rhine.  The  prophecies  of  inspired 
bards  are  not  empty  :  a  laurel  wreath  is  destined  to 
be  given  to  Jupiter  while  that  other  is  still  green. 
'Tis  not  my  words  you  read — I  am  far  away  by  the 
Hister  whose  waters  the  wild  Getae  drink — 'tis  the 
voice  of  a  god  :  a  god  is  in  my  breast ;  under  a  god's 
inspiration  I  make  this  prophecy.  Why  dost  thou 
hesitate,  Livia,  to  make  ready  a  car  and  a  procession 
for  a  triumph  ?  Already  the  war  grants  thee  no 
delay.  Traitorous  Germany  is  casting  away  the 
spears  she  has  learned  to  hate.  Soon  thou  wilt  say 
that  my  prophecy  has  weight.  O  believe  ;  soon 
shall  the  proof  be  at  hand.  Thy  son  2  shall  double 
his  honour  and  shall  advance,  as  before,  with  yoked 
steeds.  Bring  forth  the  purple  to  throw  upon  the 
victor's  shoulders  ;  the  chaplet  of  itself  can  recog- 
nize the  familiar  brow  ;  but  let  shield  and  greaves 
glitter  with  jewels  and  gold,  and  trophies  stand 
upreared 3  above  the  enchained  men.  Let  towns 

3  Trunca,  because  trophies  were  originally  fastened  to  a 
tree  whose  branches  had  been  lopped. 

405 


OVID 

105  oppida  turritis  cingantur  eburnea  muris, 

fictaque  res  vero  more  putetur  agi. 
squalidus  inmissos  fracta  sub  harundine  crines 

Rhenus  et  infectas  sanguine  portet  aquas, 
barbara  iam  capti  poscunt  insignia  reges 
110      textaque  fortuna  divitiora  sua, 

et  quae  praeterea  virtus  invicta  tuorum 

saepc  parata  tibi,  saepe  paranda  facit. 
di,  quorum  monitu  sumus  eventura  locuti, 

verba,  precor,  celeri  nostra  probate  fide. 


V. 

Quam  legis,  unde  tibi  mittatur  epistula,  quaeris  ? 

hinc,  ubi  caeruleis  iungitur  Hister  aquis. 
ut  regio  dicta  est,  succurrere  debet  et  auctor, 

laesus  ab  ingenio  Naso  poeta  suo. 
5  qui  tibi,  quam  mallet  praesens  adferre  salutem, 

mittit  ab  hirsutis,  Maxime  Cotta,  Getis. 
legimus,  o  iuvenis  patrii  non  degener  oris, 

dicta  tibi  pleno  verba  diserta  foro. 
quae  quamquam  lingua  mihi  sunt  proper  ante  per  horas 
10      lecta  satis  multas,  pauca  fuisse  queror. 

plura  sed  haec  feci  relegendo  saepe,  nee  umquam 

non  mihi,  quam  primo,  grata  fuere  magis. 
cumque  nihil [  totiens  lecta  2  e  dulcedine  perdant, 

viribus  ilia  suis,  non  novitate,  placent. 
15  felices  quibus  haec  ipso  cognoscere  in  actu 

et  tam  facundo  contigit  ore  frui  ! 
nam,  quamquam  sapor  est  adlata  dulcis  in  unda, 

gratius  ex  ipso  fonte  bibuntur  aquae. 

1  nihil]  sua  a  lecta]  nihil 

406 


EX  PONTO,  III.  iv.  105— v.  18 

of  ivory  be  girdled  with  turreted  walls,  and  the 
pretence  be  so  real  as  to  seem  true.  Let  squalid 
Rhenus  with  locks  trailing  beneath  broken  rushes  dis- 
play waters  dyed  with  blood.  Already  captive  kings 
are  calling  for  barbarian  adornment,  for  a  garb  too  rich 
to  become  their  fate,  and  all  the  other  things  which  the 
unconquered  valour  of  thy  sons  has  caused  thee  often 
to  prepare,  and  will  cause  thee  often  to  prepare. 

113  Ye  gods,  whose  admonition  inspires  my  prophecy 
of  events  to  come,  justify  my  words,  I  pray,  with  a 
speedy  proof. 

V.  To  MAXIMUS  COTTA 

Whence  comes  the  letter  that  you  read,  you  ask  ? 
From  this  place  where  Hister  unites  with  the  blue 
waves.  Soon  as  the  place  is  named  the  writer  too 
should  come  before  you — he  whose  own  talent 
injured  him,  Naso  the  poet.  To  you,  Maximus  Cotta, 
to  whom  he  would  rather  offer  it  face  to  face,  he  sends 
a  greeting  from  the  land  of  the  shaggy  Getae. 

7  I  have  read,  O  youth  not  untrue  to  your  inherited 
oratory,  the  eloquent  words  you  uttered  in  a  crowded 
forum,  and  though  my  hurrying  tongue  has  read  them 
for  many  an  hour,  yet  is  it  my  complaint  that  they 
were  few.  But  I  have  multiplied  them  by  frequent 
reading,  and  ever  have  they  been  more  pleasing  to 
me  than  at  first,  and  though  they ^  lose  by  so  much 
reading  nothing  of  their  sweetness,  'tis  by  their  force, 
not  their  novelty,  that  they  please.  Happy  they 
who  were  vouchsafed  to  hear  them  at  their  delivery, 
and  to  enjoy  utterance  so  eloquent!  For  albeit 
water  that  is  brought  to  one  tastes  sweet,  more 
grateful  is  that  which  is  drunk  from  the  spring  itself. 
6  407 


OVID 

et  magis  adducto  pomum  decerpere  ramo 
20      quam  de  caclata  sumere  lance  iuvat. 

at  nisi  peccassem,  nisi  me  mea  Musa  fugasset, 

quod  legi,  tua  vox  exhibuisset  opus, 
utque  fui  solitus,  sedissem  forsitan  unus 

de  centum  iudex  in  tua  verba  viris, 
25  maior  et  implesset  praecordia  nostra  voluptas, 

cum  traherer  dictis  adnueremque  tuis. 
quern  quoniam  fatum  patria  vobisque  l  relictis 

inter  inhumanos  maluit  esse  Getas, 
quod  licet,  ut  videar  tecum  magis  esse,  legenda  2 
30      saepe,  precor,  studii  pignora  mitte  tui, 
exemploque  meo,  nisi  dedignaris  id  ipsum, 

utere,  quod  nobis  rectius  ipse  dares. 
namque  ego,  qui  perii  iam  pridem,  Maxime,  vobis, 

ingenio  nitor  non  periisse  meo. 
35  redde  vicem,  nee  rara  tui  monimenta  laboris 

accipiant  nostrae,  grata  futura,  manus. 
die  tamen,  o  iuvenis  studiorum  plene  meorum, 

ecquid  ab  his  ipsis  admoneare  mei. 
ecquid,  ubi  aut  recitas  factum  modo  carmen  amicis, 
40      aut,  quod  saepe  soles,  exigis  ut  recitent, 

quaeror,  ut  3  interdum  tua  mens,  oblita  quid  nbsit, 

nescio  quid  certe  sentit  abesse  sui, 
utque  loqui  multum  de  me  praesente  solebas, 
nunc  quoque  Nasonis  nomen  in  ore  tuo  est  ? 
45  ipse  quidem  Getico  peream  violatus  ab  arcu 

(et  sit  periuri  quam  prope  poena,  vides) 
te  nisi  momentis  video  paene  omnibus  absens. 
gratia  quod  4  menti  quolibet  ire  licet. 

nobis  patriaque  vel  patria  nobisque 
8ut]et 


1  Ovid  had  been  a  member  of  the  Centumviral  Court,  cf. 
Tr.  ii.  93  f. 

408 


EX  PONTO,  III.  v.  19  48 

To  draw  down  the  branch  and  pluck  the  fruit  gives 
more  pleasure  than  to  take  it  from  an  engraved 
salver.  If  I  had  not  erred,  if  my  Muse  had  never 
exiled  me,  your  own  voice  would  have  delivered  to 
me  the  work  that  I  have  read  ;  as  I  was  wont,  I 
should  perchance  have  sat  as  one  of  those  hundred 
judges  intent  upon  your  words,1  and  a  greater  joy 
would  have  filled  my  breast  when  I  was  drawn  on  and 
with  nods  approved  each  phrase.  But  since  Fate  has 
wished  rather  that  I,  leaving  my  country  and  you, 
should  dwell  among  the  uncivilized  Getae,  that  I  may 
seem  the  more  to  be  with  you — send  for  my  reading 
(this  is  possible)  continual  proofs,  I  beseech  you, 
of  your  study  ;  follow  my  example,  unless  you  dis- 
dain it,  an  example  which  you  yourself  with  greater 
right  might  give  to  me.  For  I,  Maximus,  who  have 
long  been  dead,  strive  by  my  talent  to  prove  myself 
not  to  be  dead  to  you.  Recompense  me,  and  at  no 
rare  intervals  let  the  monuments  of  your  toil  come 
into  my  hands  to  give  me  joy. 

37  But  tell  me,  my  youthful  friend,  you  who  are 
inspired  with  my  own  studies,  if  these  very  studies 
bring  you  any  remembrance  of  me.  Whenever  you 
read  to  your  friends  a  poem  newly  composed  or,  as 
you  are  often  wont  to  do,  urge  them  to  read,  do 
you  miss  me  so  that  at  times  your  mind,  though 
forgetful  of  what  is  lacking,  yet  feels  at  least  some 
part  of  it  is  gone  ?  As  you  used  to  talk  often  of  me 
in  my  presence,  is  Naso's  name  now  also  on  your 
lips  ?  As  for  me,  may  I  die  outraged  by  a  Getic  bow 
— and  you  see  how  close  my  penalty  if  I  prove  false — 
if  I  do  not  see  you  at  almost  every  moment,  absent 
though  I  am.  Grateful  must  we  be  that  the  heart 
may  go  whithersoever  it  will.  When  in  this  way  I 

409 


OVID 

hac  ubi  perveni  nulli  cernendus  in  urbem, 
50      saepe  loquor  tecum,  saepe  loquente  fruor. 

turn  mihi  difficile  est,  quam  sit  bene,  dicere,  quamque 

Candida  iudiciis  ilia  sit  hora  meis. 
turn  me,  siqua  fides,  caelesti  sede  receptum 

cum  fortunatis  suspicor  esse  deis. 
55  rursus  ubi  hue  redii,  caelum  superosque  relinquo, 

a  Styge  nee  longe  Pontica  distat  humus, 
unde  ego  si  fato  nitor  prohibente  reverti, 

spem  sine  profectu,  Maxime,  tolle  mihi. 


VI. 

Naso  suo  (posuit  nomen  quam  x  paene  !)  sodali 

mittit  ab  Kuxinis  hoc  breve  carmen  aquis. 
at  si  cauta  parum  scripsisset  dextra  quis  esses, 

forsitan  officio  parta  querella  foret. 
5  cur  tarnen,  hoc  aliis  tutum  credentibus,  unus, 

appellent  ne  te  carmina  nostra.  rogas  ? 
quanta  sit  in  media  dementia  Caesaris  ira, 

si  nescis,  ex  me  certior  esse  potes. 
huic  ego,  quam  patior,  nil  possem  demere  poenae, 
10      si  iudex  merit!  cogerer  esse  mei. 

non  vetat  ille  sui  quemquam  meminisse  sodalis, 

nee  prohibet  tibi  me  scribere  tequc  mihi. 
nee  scelus  admittas,  si  consoleris  amicuni, 

mollibus  et  verbis  aspera  fata  leves. 
15  cur,  dum  tuta  times,  facis  ut  reverentia  talis 

fiat  in  Augustos  invidiosa  deos  ? 
fulminis  adflatos  interdum  vivere  telis 

vidimus  et  refici,  non  prohibente  love. 

1  quam]  cui 
410 


EX  PONTO,  III.  v.  49— vi.  18 

have  entered  the  city  though  none  can  see  me,  I 
often  converse  with  you,  often  enjoy  your  converse. 
Then  'tis  hard  to  say  how  happy  I  am,  how  bright  I 
think  that  hour.  Then,  if  you  can  credit  it,  I  con- 
ceive myself  harboured  in  heaven's  abode,  dwelling 
with  the  blessed  gods.  Again  when  I  have  returned 
hither  I  leave  behind  heaven  and  the  gods  above  ; 
the  land  of  the  Pontus  is  hard  by  the  Styx.  If 
my  struggle  to  return  from  it  is  against  the  behest 
of  fate,  then,  Maximus,  take  from  me  a  fruitless 
hope. 


VI.  To  A  FRIEND 

Naso  sends  to  his  friend — how  nearly  did  he  name 
him  ! — this  bit  of  verse  from  the  waters  of  the  Euxine. 
But  if  with  too  little  caution  his  hand  had  written 
who  you  were,  perchance  the  tribute  would  have 
earned  a  complaint.  Yet  why,  when  others  believe 
it  safe,  do  you  alone  ask  me  not  to  address  you  in  my 
verse  ?  How  great  is  Caesar's  clemency  even  in  the 
midst  of  wrath,  if  you  know  it  not,  you  may  learn 
from  my  case.  From  this  punishment  that  I  suffer  I 
could  myself  take  away  naught,  were  I  forced  to  be 
the  judge  of  my  own  deserts.  He  does  not  forbid 
anybody  to  mention  a  friend  nor  does  he  prevent  me 
from  writing  to  you  nor  you  to  me.  You  would 
commit  no  crime  should  you  comfort  your  friend, 
lightening  with  gentle  words  his  harsh  fate.  Why, 
fearful  where  no  fear  is,  do  you  by  such  homage 
bring  discredit  upon  the  Augustan  gods  ?  Men 
smitten  by  the  lightning's  bolt  we  have  seen  at  times 
live  and  recover,  nor  did  Jupiter  prevent.  Because 

411 


OVID 

nee,  quia  Neptunus  navem  lacerarat  Ulixis, 
20      Leucothea  nanti  ferre  negavit  opem. 

crede  mihi,  miseris  caelestia  numina  parcunt, 

nee  semper  laesos  et  sine  fine  premunt. 
principe  nee  nostro  deus  est  moderatior  ullus  : 

lustitia  vires  temperat  ille  suas. 
25  nuper  earn  Caesar  facto  de  marmore  templo, 

iampridem  posuit  mentis  in  aede  suae. 
luppiter  in  multos  temeraria  fulmina  torquet, 

qui  poenam  culpa  non  meruere  pati. 
obruerit  cum  tot  saevis  deus  aequoris  undis, 
30      ex  illis  mergi  pars  quota  digna  fuit  ? 

cum  pereant  acie  fortissima  quaeque,  vel  ipso 

iudice  delectus 1  Martis  iniquus  erit. 
at  si  forte  velis  in  nos  inquirere,  nemo  est 

qui  se,  quod  patitur,  commeruisse  neget. 
35  adde  quod  extinctos  vel  aqua  vel  Marte  vel  igni 

nulla  potest  iterum  restituisse  dies, 
restituit  multos  aut  poenae  parte  levavit 

Caesar  :   et  in  multis  me,  precor,  esse  velit. 
at  tu,  cum  tali  populus  sub  principe  simus, 
40      adloquio  profugi  credis  inesse  metum  ? 
forsitan  haec  domino  Busiride  iure  timeres, 

aut  solito  clausos  urere  in  aere  viros. 
desine  mitem  animum  vano  infamare  timore. 

saeva  quid  in  placidis  saxa  vereris  aquis  ? 
45  ipse  ego  quod  primo  scripsi  sine  nomine  vobis, 

vix  excusari  posse  mihi  videor. 
sed  pavor  attonito  rationis  ademerat  usuni, 
cesserat  omne  novis  consiliumque  malis, 

1  dilectus 
412 


EX  PONTO,  III.  vi.  19-48 

Neptune  had  wrecked  Ulysses'  ship,  Leucothea  J  did 
not  refuse  to  aid  him  as  he  swam.  O  believe  me,  the 
deities  of  heaven  are  merciful  to  the  wretched ;  nor  do 
they  always  and  endlessly  oppress  the  stricken.  And 
no  god  is  milder  than  our  Prince,  for  Justice  tempers 
his  strength.  Her  Caesar  but  recently  installed  in  a 
marble  temple  ;  long  ago  he  enshrined  her  in  his 
heart.  Jupiter  hurls  at  haphazard  his  bolts  against 
many  who  have  by  no  fault  deserved  to  suffer  a 
penalty.  Albeit  the  god  of  the  sea  has  overwhelmed 
so  many  in  the  cruel  waves,  how  small  the  number 
deserving  to  be  drowned  !  When  the  bravest  die  in 
battle,  Mars'  levy  will  be  unjust  even  in  his  own  judg- 
ment. But  if  perchance  you  wish  to  question  each  one 
of  us,2  there  is  not  one  who  would  deny  that  he  had 
deserved  his  suffering.  And  those  who  have  died  at 
sea,  in  war,  by  fire  no  day  can  restore.  But  Caesar 
has  restored  many  or  lightened  a  part  of  their  punish- 
ment ;  may  it  be  his  will  that  I  too  be  one  of  these 
many. 

39  But  you,  when  we,  his  people,  live  under  such  an 
emperor — do  you  believe  that  comforting  an  exile  is 
dangerous  ?  Perhaps  under  the  dominion  of  Busiris 
you  might  rightly  fear  this  or  under  him  3  who  was 
wont  to  burn  men  within  the  bronze .  Cease  to  defame 
a  tender  heart  with  idle  fear.  Why  fear  cruel  reefs 
in  a  calm  sea  ?  Even  I,  for  having  written  at  first 
to  you  without  your  name,  think  that  I  can  scarcely 
be  excused.  But  I  was  so  stunned  that  fear  h,rid  taken 
away  the  use  of  reason,  and  all  power  of  thought  had 
given  way  to  the  new  misfortune  ;  fearful  of  my 

1  The  sea  goddess  who  aided  Ulysses  to  reach  Phaeacia. 

2  i.e.  those  whom  Augustus  had  punished. 

8  Phalaris. 

413 


OVID 

fortunamque  meam  metuens,  non  vindicis  iram, 
50      terrebar  titulo  noininis  ipse  mei. 

hactenus  admonitus  memori  concede  poetae l 

ponat  ut  in  chartis  nomina  cara  suis. 
turpe  erit  ambobus,  longo  mihi  proximus  usu 

si  nulla  libri  parte  legere  mei. 
55  ne  tamen  iste  metus  somnos  tibi  rumpere  possit, 

non  ultra,  quam  vis,  officiosus  ero, 
teque  tegam,  qui  sis,  nisi  cum  permiseris  ipse  : 

cogetur  nemo  munus  habere  meum. 
tu  modo,  quern  poteras  vel  aperte  tutus  amare, 
60      si  res  est  anceps  ista,  latenter  ama. 


VII. 

Verba  mihi  desunt  eadem  tam  saepe  roganti, 

iamque  pudet  vanas  fine  carere  preces. 
taedia  consimili  fieri  de  carmine  vobis, 

quidque  petam  cunctos  edidicisse  reor. 
6  nostraque  quid  portet  iam  nostis  epistula,  quamvis 

cera2  sit  a  vinclis  non  labefacta  suis.3 
ergo  mutetur  scripti  sententia  nostri, 

ne  totiens  contra,  quam  rapit  amnis,  earn, 
quod  bene  de  vobis  speravi,  ignoscite,  amici  : 
10      talia  peccandi  iam  mihi  finis  erit. 

nee  gravis  uxori  dicar  :   quae  scilicet  in  me 

quam  proba  tam  timida  est  experiensque  parum. 
hoc  quoque,  Naso,  feres  :   etenim  peiora  tulisti. 

iam  tibi  sentiri  sarcina  nulla  potest. 
15  ductus  ab  armento  taurus  detrectat4  aratrum, 

subtrahit 5  et  duro  colla  novella  iugo  : 

1  sodali  <J  charta  3  suis]  meis 

4  detrectet  6  subtrahat 

414 


EX  PONTO,  III,  vi.  49— vii.  16 

own  fate,  not  of  the  avenger's  wrath,  I  was  filled 
with  dread  by  the  superscription  of  my  own  name. 

51  Now  that  I  have  admonished  you  thus  far,  permit 
the  poet  who  remembers  you  to  place  in  his  pages 
names  that  are  dear  to  him.  It  will  shame  us  both 
if  you,  so  close  to  me  through  long  intimacy,  are 
mentioned  nowhere  in  my  book.  Yet  I  would  not 
have  your  slumbers  broken  by  that  dread  of  yours  ; 
I  will  not  display  my  devotion  beyond  your  wishes, 
and  I  will  conceal  who  you  are  save  when  you  shall 
yourself  grant  leave  ;  none  shall  be  forced  to  receive 
my  tribute.  Only  do  you,  though  you  might  with 
safety  have  loved  me  openly,  if  that  seems  danger- 
ous— love  me  in  secret. 


VII.  To  FRIENDS 

Words  fail  me  to  make  the  same  request  so  many 
times ;  and  at  last  it  shames  me  that  my  idle  prayers  are 
endless.  You  are  all  weary  of  my  monotonous  verses, 
and  rny  request  you  have  learned  by  heart,  I  think. 
What  message  my  letter  bears  you  know  already, 
although  the  wax  has  not  been  broken  from  its  bonds. 
So  let  me  change  the  purport  of  my  writing  that  my 
course  be  not  so  often  against  the  hurrying  stream. 

9  For  my  good  hopes  of  you,  pardon  me,  my  friends  : 
of  such  error  now  there  shall  be  an  end.  Nor  will  I 
be  called  a  trouble  to  my  wife  who  in  sooth  is  as  true 
to  me  as  she  is  timid  and  backward  in  her  efforts. 
This  also,  Naso,  thou  shalt  bear,  and  thou  hast  borne 
worse  things  ;  no  burden  can  affect  thee  now.  The 
bull  when  he  is  taken  from  the  herd  objects  to  the 
plough  and  wrenches  his  inexperienced  neck  from 

415 


OVID 

nos,  quibus  adsuevit  fatum  crudeliter  uti, 

ad  mala  iam  pridem  non  sumus  ulla  rudes. 
venimus  in  Geticos  fines  :  moriamur l  in  illis, 
20      Parcaque  ad  extremum  qua  mea  coepit  eat. 
speni  iuvat  amplecti — quae  non  iuvat  inrita  semper- 

et,  fieri  cupias  siqua,  futura  putes : 
proximus  huic  gradus  est  bene  desperare  salutem, 

seque  semel  vera  scire  perisse  fide. 
25  curando  fieri  quaedam  maiora  videmus 

vulnera,  quae  melius  non  tetigisse  fuit. 
mitius  ille  perit,  subita  qui  mergitur  unda, 

quam  sua  qui  tumidis  brachia  lassat2  aquis. 
cur  ego  concepi  Scythicis  me  posse  carere 
30      finibus  et  terra  prosperiore  frui  ? 

cur  aliquid  de  me  speravi  lenius  umquaru  ? 

an  fortuna  mihi  sic  mea  nota  fuit  ? 
torqueor  en  gravius,  repetitaque  forma  locorum 

exilium  renovat  triste  recensque  facit. 
35  est  tamen  utilius,  studium  cessare  meorum, 
quam,  quas  admorint,  non  valuisse  preces. 
magna  quidem  res  est,  quam3  non  audetis,  amici  : 

sed  si  quis  peteret,  qui  dare  vellet,  erat. 
duminodo  non  nobis  4  hoc  Caesaris  ira  negarit, 
40      fortiter  Euxinis  inmoriemur  aquis. 


VIII. 

Quae  tibi  quaerebam  rnemorem  testantia  curam 
dona  Tomitanus  mittere  posset  ager. 

1  moriemur  2  iactat  vd  pulsat 

3  quam]  sed  4  vnbis 

1  In  bitter  despair  the  poet  resolves  at  least  to  die  bravely 
if  Caesar  does  not  deny  him  even  this. 

416 


EX  PONTO,  III.  vii.  17— vm.  2 

the  hard  yoke  :  I,  beneath  the  practised  cruelty  of 
fate,  have  for  long  found  no  misfortune  with  which  I 
am  not  familiar.  I  have  come  to  the  Getic  shores  ; 
let  me  die  there  and  let  my  Fate  continue  to  the  end 
the  course  she  has  begun.  'Tis  good  to  embrace  a 
hope — though  it  bring  no  good  and  be  ever  vain — 
and  whatever  you  long  for  that  you  may  deem  will 
happen.  The  next  stage  is  utterly  to  give  up  hope  of 
salvation,  to  know  once  and  for  all  with  full  assurance 
that  one  is  lost.  Some  wounds  are  made  worse  by 
treatment,  as  we  see  :  it  had  been  better  not  to 
touch  them.  More  merciful  is  his  death  who  is 
suddenly  overwhelmed  by  the  waters  than  his  who 
wearies  his  arms  in  the  heaving  seas.  Why  did  I 
conceive  it  possible  for  me  to  leave  the  Scythian  land 
and  enjoy  a  happier  one  ?  Why  did  I  ever  hope  any 
mercy  for  myself  ?  Was  it  thus  that  I  had  come  to 
know  my  fate  ?  Lo  !  my  torture  is  all  the  worse, 
and  the  repeated  description  of  this  place  but  renews 
and  freshens  the  harshness  of  my  exile.  Yet  'tis 
better  that  the  zeal  of  my  friends  should  cease  than 
that  the  petitions  they  have  brought  should  have  had 
no  weight.  Serious  indeed,  my  friends,  is  the  thing 
you  dare  not  :  but  if  anybody  were  to  ask,  there  is 
one  who  would  be  willing  to  grant.  If  only  Caesar 's 
wrath  does  not  deny  me  this,1 1  shall  bravely  die  on 
the  shores  of  the  Euxine  sea. 


VIII.  To  MAXIMUS 

I  was  pondering  what  gift  to  witness  my  unfor- 

getting  love  of  you  the  land  of  Tomis  could  send  you 

2E  417 


OVID 

dignus  es  argento,  fulvo  quoque  dignior  auro, 

sed  te,  cum  donas,  ista  iuvare  solent. 
6  nee  tamen  haec  loca  sunt  ullo  pretiosa  metallo  : 

hostis  ab  agricola  vix  sinit  ilia  fodi. 
purpura  saepe  tuos  fulgens  praetexit  amictus. 

sed  non  Sarmatico  tingitur  ilia  mari. 
vellera  dura  ferunt  pecudes,  et  Palladis  uti 
10     arte  Tomitanae  non  didicere  nurus. 
femina  pro  lana  Cerealia  munera  frangit, 

suppositoque  gravem  vertice  portat  aquam. 
non  hie  pampineis  amicitur  vitibus  ulmus, 

nulla  premunt  ramos  ponder e  poma  suo.1 
15  tristia  deformes  pariunt  absinthia  campi, 

terraque  de  fructu  quam  sit  amara  docet. 
nil  igitur  tota  Ponti  regione  sinistri, 

quod  mea  sedulitas  mittere  posset,  erat. 
clausa  tamen  misi  Scythica  tibi  tela  pharetra  : 
20      hoste  precor  fiant  ilia  cruenta  tuo. 

hos  habet  haec  calamos,  hos  haec  habet  ora  libellos, 

haec  viget  in  nostris,  Maxime,  Musa  locis  ! 
quae  quamquam  misisse  pudet,  quia  parva  videntur, 

tu  tamen  haec,  quaeso,  consule  missa  boni. 


IX. 

Quod  sit  in  his  eadem  sententia,  Brute,  libellis, 
carmina  nescio  quern  carpere  nostra  refers  : 

nil  nisi  me  terra  fruar  ut  propiore  rogare, 

et  quam  sim  denso  cinctus  ab  hoste  loqui. 

6  o,  quam  de  multis  vitium  reprehenditur  unum  I 

hoc  peccat  solum  si  mea  Musa,  bene  est. 

1   BU09 

418 


EX  PONTO,  III.  vin.  3— ix.  6 

Worthy  are  you  of  silver,  of  tawny  gold  still  more,  but 
such  things  are  wont  to  please  you  when  you  are  the 
giver.  Nor  are  these  lands  enriched  by  any  mine  : 
scarce  does  the  enemy  allow  the  farmer  to  dig  there. 
Often  has*  the  gleam  of  purple  bordered  your  robe, 
but  there  is  no  such  dye  as  that  by  the  Sarmatian 
sea.  The  flocks  produce  a  coarse  fleece  and  the 
daughters  of  Tonris  have  not  learned  the  craft  of 
Pallas.  Instead  of  working  the  wool  they  grind  Ceres' 
gifts  or  carry  heavy  burdens  of  water  supported  on 
their  heads.  Here  no  clustering  vines  cloak  the  elms, 
no  fruits  bend  the  branches  with  their  weight.  Harsh 
wormwood  is  the  product  of  the  unsightly  plains,  and 
by  this  fruit  the  land  proclaims  its  own  bitterness. 

17  Nothing  there  was,  then,  in  the  whole  region  of  ill- 
omened  Pontus  that  all  my  pains  could  send.  Yet  I 
am  sending  some  Scythian  arrows  enclosed  in  their 
quiver  ;  may  they  be  stained,  I  pray,  in  the  blood  of 
your  enemies  !  Such  are  the  pens  on  this  shore, 
such  the  books  !  Such  is  the  Muse  who  flourishes, 
Maximus,  in  this  place  of  mine  !  I  am  ashamed  to 
send  them  because  they  seem  poor  gifts;  yet  I  pray 
you  to  take  them  in  good  part. 


IX.  To  BRUTUS 

Because  these  compositions  of  mine  contain  the 
same  thought,  Brutus,  you  report  that  somebody  is 
carping  at  my  verse  :  nothing  (he  says)  but  petition- 
ing that  I  may  enjoy  a  land  nearer  home,  and  talk 
of  the  throng  of  enemies  encircling  me.  Ah,  how 
the  critic  seizes  on  but  one  of  many  shortcomings  ! 
If  this  is  the  only  blemish  of  my  Muse,  'tis  well.  I 

419 


OVID 

ipse  ego  librorum  video  delicta  meorum, 

cum  sua  plus  iusto  carmina  quisque  probet. 
auctor  opus  laudat :  sic  forsitan  Agrius  olim 
10     Thersiten  facie  dixerit  esse  bona. 

iudicium  tamen  hie  nostrum  non  decipit  error, 

nee,  quicquid  genui,  protinus  illud  amo. 
cur  igitur,  si  me  videam  delinquere,  peccem, 

et  patiar  scripto  crimen  inesse,  rogas  ? 
15  non  eadem  ratio  est  sentire  et  demere  morbos ; 

sensus  inest  cunctis,  tollitur  arte  malum. 
saepe  aliquod  verbum  oupiens  mutare  reliqui, 

iudicium  vires  destituuntque  meum. 
saepe  piget  (quid  enim  dubitem  tibi  vera  fateri) 
20      corrigere  et  longi  ferre  laboris  onus. 

scribentem  iuvat  ipse  labor1  minuitque  laborem, 

cumque  suo  crescens  pectore  fervet  opus, 
corrigere  ut 2  res  est  tanto  magis  ardua  quanto 

magnus  Aristarcho  maior  Homerus  erat, 
25  sic  animum  lento  curarum  frigore  laedit 

et3  cupidi  cursus  frena  retentat  equi. 
atque  ita  di  mites  minuant  mihi  Caesaris  irarn, 

ossaque  pacata  nostra  tegantur  humo, 
ut  mihi  conanti  nonnumquam  intendere  curas 
30      fortunae  species  obstat  acerba  meae, 

vixque  mihi  videor,  faciam  qui 4  carmina,  sanus, 

inque  feris  curem  corrigere  ilia  Getis. 
nil  tamen  e  scriptis  magis  excusabile  nostris, 

quam  sensus  cunctis  paene  quod  unus  inest. 
35  laeta  fere  laetus  cecini,  cano  tristia  tristis  : 

conveniens  operi  tempus  utrumque  suo  est. 

1  favor  *  et  vel  at :  ut  Burmann 

8  et]  ut  4  qni]  quod  vel  cum 

420 


EX  PONTO,  III.  ix.  7-36 

myself  perceive  the  defects  of  my  own  books  despite 
the  fact  that  every  man  is  all  too  fond  of  his  own 
verse.  A  creator  finds  praise  for  his  own  work  :  so 
perchance  of  old  Agrius l  may  have  called  Thersites 
fair.  Yet  my  judgment  is  not  distorted  by  this 
failing  :  whatever  I  beget  does  not  forthwith  please 
me.  Why  then,  you  ask,  if  I  perceive  my  mistakes, 
should  I  continue  to  err,  permitting  faults  to  remain 
in  my  writing  ?  'Tis  not  the  same  story  to  feel  and 
to  cure  a  disease  ;  all  men  can  feel,  skill  must  remove 
the  trouble.  Often  when  I  am  desirous  of  changing 
some  word  I  leave  it,  and  my  strength  forsakes  my 
judgment.  Often — why  should  I  hesitate  to  confess 
to  you  the  truth  ? — it  irks  me  to  emend  and  endure 
the  burden  of  long  toil.  While  writing  the  very  toil 
gives  pleasure  and  itself  is  lessened,  and  the  growing 
work  glows  along  with  the  writer's  heart.  But  to 
emend — even  as  it  is  a  thing  as  much  harder  as 
great  Homer  was  greater  than  Aristarchus,  so  it 
wears  down  the  mind  with  a  slow  chill  of  worry, 
curbing  the  steed  all  eager  for  the  race.  As  truly  as 
I  hope  that  the  merciful  gods  may  lessen  Caesar's 
wrath  and  allow  my  bones  to  rest  in  peaceful  soil, 
when  I  attempt  to  work  carefully,  sometimes  the 
bitter  vision  of  my  lot  confronts  me  and  I  think 
myself  hardly  sane  in  composing  verses  or  in  troubling 
to  emend  them  among  the  wild  Getae. 

33  And  yet  there  is  nothing  more  deserving  of  excuse 
in  what  I  write  than  that  in  it  all  there  is  one  single 
thought.  Gay  was  oft  my  song  when  I  was  gay,  sad  it 
is  now  that  I  am  sad  :  each  period  has  a  type  of  work 

1  Father  of  Thersites,  r/.  Ex  P.  iv.  13.  15  note. 

421 


OVID 

quid  nisi  de  vitio  scribam  regionis  amarae, 

utque  loco  moriar  commodiore  precer  ? 
cum  totiens  eadem  dicam,  vix  audior  ulli, 
40      verbaque  profectu  dissimulata  carent. 

et  tamen  haec  eadem  cum  sint,  non  scripsimus l  isdem, 

unaque  per  plures  vox  mea  temptat  opem. 
an,  ne  bis  sensum  lector  reperiret  eundem, 

unus  amicorum,  Brute,  rogandus  eras  2  ? 
45  non  fuit  hoc  tanti.     confesso  ignoscite,  docti  : 

vilior  est  operis  fama  salute  mea. 
denique  materiam,  quam  3  quis  sibi  finxerit  ipse, 

arbitrio  variat  mult  a  poeta  suo. 
Musa  mea  est  index  nimium  quoque  vera  malorum. 
50      atque  incorrupti  pondera  testis  habet. 
nee  liber  ut  fieret,  sed  uti  sua  cuique  daretur 

littera,  propositum  curaque  nostra  fuit. 
postmodo  collectas  utcumque  sine  ordine  iunxi  : 

hoc  opus  electum  ne  mihi  forte  putes. 
55  da  veniam  scriptis,  quorum  non  gloria  nobis 

causa,  sed  utilitas  officiumque  fuit. 

1  scribimus  vel  scribitur  *  erat 

8  quam]  cum  Bentley 


422 


EX  PONTO,  III.  ix.  37-56 

that  befits  it.  Of  what  am  I  to  write  save  the  evils 
of  a  bitter  country  and  to  pray  that  I  may  die  in  a 
pleasanter  region  ?  I  write  so  often  of  the  same 
things  that  scarce  any  listen,  and  my  words,  which 
they  feign  not  to  understand,  are  without  result. 
And  yet  though  the  words  are  always  the  same,  I 
have  not  written  to  the  same  persons  :  my  cry, 
always  the  same,  seeks  aid  through  many.  Should 
I — that  some  reader  might  not  twice  find  the  same 
sense — petition  you  alone,  Brutus,  among  my  friends  ? 
It  was  not  worth  the  price  ;  pardon  the  confession, 
ye  men  of  taste  !  Cheaper  in  my  eyes  is  the  reputa- 
tion of  my  work  than  my  own  weal.  In  fine  the 
subject  which  anyone  may  have  fashioned  for  him- 
self, he  varies  in  many  ways  to  suit  his  own  taste — 
if  he  be  a  poet.  My  Muse  is  but  too  true  an  index 
of  my  misfortunes  ;  she  has  all  the  weight  of  an 
incorruptible  witness.  Not  to  produce  a  book,  but 
to  send  a  letter  to  each  has  been  the  object  of  my 
care.  Later  I  collected  them  and  put  them  together 
somehow,  without  order — not  to  have  you  think  per- 
chance that  for  this  work  I  have  made  selections. 
Grant  indulgence  to  my  writings,  for  their  purpose 
has  been  not  my  renown  but  my  advantage,  and  to  do 
homage  to  others. 


423 


LIBER  QUARTUS 

I. 

Accipe,  Pompei,  deductum  carmen  ab  illo, 

debitor  est  vitae  qui  tibi,  Sexte,  suae. 
qui  seu  non  prohibes  a  me  tua  nomina  poni, 

accedet  meritis  haec  quoque  summa  tuis  : 
6  sive  trahis  vultus,  equidem  peccasse  fatebor, 

delicti  tamen  est  causa  probanda  mei. 
non  potuit  mea  mens,  quin  esset  grata,  teneri. 

sit  precor  officio  non  gravis  ira  pio. 
o,1  quotiens  ego  sum  libris  mini  visus  in  2  istis 
10      impius,  in  nullo  quod  legerere  loco  ! 
o,  quotiens,  alii  cum  vellem  scribere,  nomen 

rettulit  in  ceras  inscia  dextra  tuum  ! 
ipse  mihi  placuit  mcndis  in  talibus  error, 

et  vix  invita  facta  litura  manu  est. 
15  "  viderit !  ad  summam  "  dixi  "  licet  ipse  queratur  ! 

hanc3  pudet  offensam  non  meruisse  prius." 
da  mihi,  siquid  ea  est,  hebetantem  pectora  Lethen. 

oblitus  potero  non  tamen  esse  tui. 
idque  sinas  oro,  nee  fasti dita  repellas 
20      verba,  nee  officio  crimen  inesse  putes, 
et  levis  haec  meritis  referatur  gratia  tantis  : 

si  minus,  invito  te  quoque  gratus  ero. 

1  o]  di  •  in]  ab  f  hanc]  a,  t.«.  a ! 

424. 


BOOK  IV 

I.  To  SEXTUS  POMPEY 

Deign  to  receive  a  poem,  Sextus  Pompey,  com- 
posed by  him  who  is  indebted  to  you  for  his  life. 
If  you  do  not  prevent  me  from  uttering  your  name 
this  also  will  be  added  to  the  sum  of  your  deserts  : 
or  if  you  frown,  I  shall  indeed  confess  my  mistake,  but 
its  cause  must  nevertheless  win  approval.  My  heart 
could  not  be  restrained  from  gratitude  ;  let  not  your 
anger  be  heavy,  I  beseech  you,  upon  my  loyal 
service.  Ah,  how  often  have  I  thought  myself  un- 
grateful in  these  books  because  nowhere  was  your 
name  read  !  Ah,  how  often,  when  I  wished  to  write  to 
another,  has  my  hand  all  unconsciously  placed  your 
name  upon  the  wax !  The  very  mistake  I  made  in 
such  slips  gave  me  pleasure  and  my  hand  was  scarce 
willing  to  make  the  erasure.  "  Let  him  see  it !  "  I 
said,  "  though  he  may  indeed  complain  !  Ashamed 
am  I  not  to  have  earned  this  blame  earlier ! " 
Give  me,  if  such  thing  there  be,  the  waters  of  Lethe 
that  benumb  the  heart,  yet  I  shall  not  be  able  to 
forget  you.  I  beg  you  will  permit  this  nor  reject 
in  contempt  my  words,  nor  think  that  in  my  tribute 
there  is  a  sin.  Let  this  slight  gratitude  be  rendered 
to  all  your  services  ;  if  you  do  not,  I  shall  be  grateful 
even  against  your  will. 

425 


OVID 

numquam  pigra  fuit  nostris  tua  gratia  rebus, 

nee  mihi  munificas  area  negavit  opes. 
25  nunc  quoque  nil  subitis  dementia  territa  fatis 

auxilium  vitae  fertque1  feretque  meae. 
unde  rogas  forsan  fiducia  tanta  futuri 

sit  mihi  ?  quod  fecit,  quisque  tuetur  opus, 
ut  Venus  artificis  labor  est  et  gloria  Coi, 
30      aequoreo  madidas  quae  premit  imbre  comas  : 
arcis  ut  Actaeae  vel  eburna  vel  aerea  2  custos 

bellica  Phidiaca  stat  dea  facta  manu  : 
vindicat  ut  Calamis  laudem,  quos  fecit,  equorum : 

ut  similis  verae  vacca  Myronis  opus  : 

35  sic  ego  pars  rerum  non  ultima,  Sexte,  tuarum 

tutelaeque  feror  munus  opusque  tuae. 


II. 

Quod  legis,  o  vates  magnorum  maxime  regum, 

venit  ab  intonsis  usque,  Severe,  Getis  : 
cuius  adhuc  nomen  nostros  tacuisse  libellos, 

si  modo  permittis  dicere  vera,  pudet. 
5  orba  tamen  numeris  cessavit  epistula  numquam 

ire  per  alternas  officiosa  vices, 
carmina  sola  tibi  memorem  testantia  curam 

non  data  sunt.     quid  enim,  quae  facis  ipse,  darem  ? 
quis  mel  Aristaeo,  quis  Baccho  vina  Falerna, 
10      Triptolemo  fruges,  poma  det  Alcinoo  ? 

fertile  pectus  habes,  interque  Helicona  colentes 

uberius  nulli  provenit  ista  seges. 

1  feretque  vel  refertque  vel  referta  *  aenea :  aerea  r 

1  Ovid  plays  on  gratia  (thanks),  gratvs  (grateful),  and 
gratia  (favour,  kindness). 

426 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  i.  23—11.  12 

23  Never  has  your  grace  1  been  slow  to  meet  my 
need  nor  has  your  coffer  ever  denied  me  generous 
aid.  Even  now  your  clemency,  not  at  all  deterred 
by  my  sudden  misfortune,  offers  and  will  continue 
to  offer  succour  to  my  life.  Whence,  perchance  you 
ask,  have  I  so  much  confidence  in  the  future  ?  Every 
man  watches  over  the  work  he  has  wrought.  Just 
as  Venus  is  at  once  the  work  and  glory  of  the  Coan 
artist,2  as  she  presses  her  locks  damp  with  the  spray 
of  the  sea  ;  as  the  war  goddess  3  who  guards  the 
Actaean  citadel  stands  in  ivory  or  bronze  wrought 
by  the  hand  of  Phidias,  as  Calamis  claims  renown 
for  the  steeds  he  has  made,  as  the  lifelike  cow  is 
Myron's  work,  so  I  am  not  the  last  of  your  posses- 
sions, Sextus ;  I  am  known  as  the  gift,  the  work  of 
your  guardianship. 

II.  To  SEVERUS 

That  which  you  are  reading,  Severus,  mightiest 
bard  of  mighty  kings,  comes  all  the  way  from  the 
land  of  the  unshorn  Getae,  and  that  as  yet  my  books 
have  made  no  mention  of  your  name — if  you  will 
permit  me  to  speak  the  truth — brings  me  shame. 
Yet  letters  not  in  metre  have  never  ceased  to  go 
on  their  mission  of  friendship  between  us.  Verse 
alone,  bearing  witness  to  your  thoughtful  care,  I 
have  not  given  you  :  why  should  I  give  what  you 
yourself  compose  ?  Who  would  give  honey  to 
Aristaeus,  Falernian  wine  to  Bacchus,  grain  to  Tripto- 
lemus,  fruit  to  Alcinous  ?  You  have  a  productive 
heart ;  of  those  who  cultivate  Helicon,  none  displays 

*  Apelles.  *  Athena. 

427 


OVID 

mittere  ad  hunc  carmen,  frondes  erat  addere  silvis 

haec  mihi  cunctandi  causa,  Severe,  fuit. 
15  nee  tamen  ingenium  nobis  respondet,  ut  ante, 

sed  siccum  sterili  vomere  litus  aro. 
scilicet  ut  limus  venas  excaecat 1  in  undis, 

laesaque  suppresso  fonte  resistit  aqua, 
pectora  sic  mea  sunt  limo  vitiata  malorum, 
20      et  carmen  vena  pauperiore  fluit. 

si  quis  in  hac  ipsum  terra  posuisset  Homerum, 

esset,  crede  mihi,  factus  et  ille  Getes. 
da  veniam  fasso,  studiis  quoque  frena  remisi, 

ducitur  et  digitis  littera  rara  meis. 
25  impetus  ille  sacer,  qui  vatum  pectora  nutrit, 

qui  prius  in  nobis  esse  solebat,  abest. 
vix  venit  ad  partes,  vix  sumptae  Musa  tabellae 

inponit  pigras  paene  coacta  manus. 
parvaque,  ne  dicam  scribendi  nulla  voluptas 
30      est  mihi,  nee  numeris  nectere  verba  iuvat. 
sive  quod  hinc  fructus  adeo  non  cepimus  ullos, 

prinoipium  nostri  res  sit  ut  ista  mali  : 
sive  quod  in  tenebris  numerosos  ponere  gestus,2 

quodque  legas  nulli  scribere  carmen,  idem  est. 
35  excitat  auditor  studium,  laudataque  virtus 

crescit,  et  inmensum  gloria  calcar  habet. 
hie  mea  cui  recitem  nisi  flavis  scripta  Corallis, 

quasque  alias  gentes  barbarus  Hister  habet  ? 
sed  quid  solus  agam,  quaque  infelicia  perdam 
40      otia  materia  surripiamque  diem  ? 

nam  quia  nee  vinum,  nee  me  tenet  alea  fallax, 

per  quae  clam  taciturn  tempus  abire  solet, 
nee  me,  quod  cuperem,  si  per  fera  bella  liceret, 

oblectat  cultu  terra  novata  suo, 

1  venas  excaecat]  cum  venas  cecat 
*  gressus  £" 

428 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  ii.  13-44 

a  richer  crop.  To  send  verse  to  such  a  one  were  to 
add  leaves  to  the  forest :  this  has  caused  my  delay, 
Severus.  Yet  my  talent  does  not  answer  the  call  as 
of  old,  for  I  am  furrowing  a  barren  shore  with  an 
ineffective  plough.  Surely  just  as  silt  clogs  the  veins 
in  springs  and  the  outraged  water  halts  in  the  choked 
fountain,  so  my  mind  has  been  injured  by  the  silt  of 
misfortune,  and  my  verse  flows  with  a  scantier  vein. 
If  anyone  had  set  in  this  land  Homer  himself,  let  me 
assure  you,  even  he  would  have  become  a  Getan. 
Pardon  one  who  confesses,  but  in  my  pursuit  I  have 
relaxed  the  rein,  my  fingers  rarely  trace  a  letter. 
That  inspired  impulse,  the  nurse  of  poets'  thoughts, 
which  once  was  mine,  is  gone.  My  Muse  scarce 
takes  her  part,  and  when  I  have  taken  up  my  tablets 
scarce  does  she  lay  upon  them  an  inert  hand,  almost 
under  coercion.  I  have  little  pleasure,  or  none  at  all, 
in  writing,  no  zest  in  joining  words  to  metre,  whether 
it  is  that  I  have  so  reaped  from  it  no  profit  that  this 
very  thing  is  the  source  of  my  misfortune,  or  that 
making  rhythmic  gestures  in  the  dark  and  composing 
a  poem  which  you  may  read  to  nobody  are  one  and 
the  same  thing.  A  hearer  rouses  zeal,  excellence 
increases  with  praise,  and  renown  possesses  a  mighty 
spur.  In  this  place  who  is  there  to  whom  I  can  read 
my  compositions  except  the  yellow-haired  Coralli,  or 
the  other  tribes  of  the  wild  Hister  ?  But  what  shall 
I  do  in  my  loneliness,  with  what  occupation  shall  I 
pass  my  ill-starred  leisure  and  beguile  the  day  ? 
For  since  neither  wine  nor  treacherous  dice  attract 
me,  which  oft  cause  time  to  steal  quietly  away,  nor 
— although  I  should  like  it  if  fierce  war  permitted — 
can  I  take  pleasure  in  renewing  the  earth  by  cultiva- 

429 


OVID 

46  quid,  nisi  Pierides,  solacia  frigida,  restant, 
non  bene  de  nobis  quae  meruere  deae  ? 
at  tu,  cui  bibitur  felicius  Aouius  fons, 

utiliter  studium  quod  tibi  cedit  ama, 
sacraque  Musarum  merito  cole,  quodque  legamus, 
CO      hue  aliquod  curae  mittc  recentis  opus. 

III. 

Conquerar,  an  taceam  ?  ponam  sine  nomine  crimen, 

an  notum  qui  sis  omnibus  esse  velim  ? 
nomine  non  utar,  ne  commendere  querella, 

quaeraturque  tibi  carmine  fama  meo. 
5  dum  mea  puppis  erat  valida  fundata  carina, 

qui  mccum  velles  currere,  primus  eras, 
nunc,  quia  contraxit  vultum  Fortuna,  recedis, 

auxilio  postquam  scis  opus  esse  tuo. 
dissimulas  etiam,  nee  me  vis  nosse  videri, 
10      quisque  sit,  audito  nomine,  Naso,  rogas. 
ille  ego  sum,  quamquam  non  vis  audire,  vetusta 

paene  puer  puero  iunctus  amicitia  : 
ille  ego,  qui  primus  tua  seria  nosse  solebam 

et  tibi  iucundis  primus  ad  esse  iocis  : 
15  ille  ego  convictor  densoque  domesticus  usu, 

ille  ego  iudiciis  unica  Musa  tuis. 
ille  ego  sum,  qui  nunc  an  vivam,  perfide,  nescis, 

cura  tibi  de  quo  quaerere  nulla  fuit. 
sive  fui  numquam  carus,  simulasse  fateris  : 
20      seu  non  fingebas,  inveniere  levis. 

aut  age,  die  aliquam,  quae  te  mutaverit,  iram  : 

nam  nisi  iusta  tua  est,  iusta  querella  mea  est. 

1  Since  Severus  wrote  epics  on  contemporary  themes  (se< 
Index),  it  is  not  improbable  that  he  had  received  somi 
concrete  reward. 

430 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  IT.  45— in.  22 

tion,  what  remains  except  the  Pierians,  a  cold  solace, 
— the  goddesses  who  have  not  deserved  well  of  me  ? 
But  you,  who  quaff  more  happily  the  Aonian  spring, 
continue  your  love  for  the  pursuit  which  yields  you 
profit ; x  worship  as  is  right  the  cult  of  the  Muses 
and  for  my  reading  send  hither  some  work  over  which 
you  have  recently  toiled. 


III.  To  A  FAITHLESS  FRIEND 

Complaint  or  silence  ?  Shall  I  make  a  nameless 
charge,  o^  should  I  wish  all  to  know  who  you  are  ? 
I  will  not  employ  your  name  lest  my  complaint  bring 
you  favour  and  through  my  verse  you  win  renown. 

5  As  long  as  my  bark  rested  firmly  upon  its  keel 
among  all  who  wished  to  sail  with  me  you  were  first. 
Now  that  Fortune  has  frowned  you  withdraw  upon 
discovering  that  your  assistance  is  needed.  You 
play  the  dissembler,  too,  and  wish  not  to  be  thought 
to  know  me  ;  when  you  hear  the  name  you  ask  who 
Naso  is  !  'Tis  I,  although  you  will  not  hear  it,  who 
have  been  united  to  you  in  friendship  almost  boy 
with  boy  ;  'tis  I  who  used  first  to  hear  your  serious 
thoughts,  first  to  listen  to  your  pleasant  jests  ;  'tis 
I  who  lived  in  close  union  with  you  in  the  same 
household  ;  'tis  I  who  in  your  judgment  was  the  one 
and  only  Muse  ;  'tis  I  of  whom  you  know  not, 
traitor,  whether  I  am  now  alive,  about  whom  you 
have  been  at  no  pains  to  inquire.  If  I  was  never 
dear  to  you,  you  confess  pretence  ;  if  you  were  not 
feigning,  you  will  be  proved  faithless.  Or  else  come 
now,  tell  me  of  some  reason  for  anger  that  has  altered 
you  ;  for  if  your  complaint  is  not  just,  then  mine  is 

431 


OVID 

quod  te  nunc  crimen  similem l  vetat  esse  priori  ? 

an  crimen,  coepi  quod  miser  esse,  vocas  ? 
25  si  mihi  rebus  opem  nullam  factisque  ferebas, 

venisset  verbis  charta  notata  tribus. 
vix  equidem  credo,  sed  et 2  insultare  iacenti 

te  mihi  nee  verbis  parcere  fama  refert. 
quid  facis,  a  !  demens  ?  cur,  si  Fortuna  recedat,8 
30      naufragio  lacrimas  eripis  ipse  tuo  ? 

haec  dea  non  stabili,  quam  sit  levis,  orbe  fatetur, 

quae  summum  dubio  sub  pede  semper  habet. 
quolibet  est  folio,  quavis  incertior  aura  : 

par  illi  levitas,  improbe,  sola  tua  est. 
35  omnia  sunt  hominum  tenui  pendentia  filo,  4 

et  subito  casu  quae  valuere,  ruunt. 
divitis  audita  est  cui  non  opulentia  Croesi  ? 

nempe  tamen  vitam  captus  ab  hoste  tulit. 
ille  Syracosia  modo  formidatus  in  urbe 
40      vix  humili  duram  reppulit  arte  famem. 
quid  fuerat  Magno  maius  ?  tamen  ille  rogavit 

summissa  fugiens  voce  clientis  opem. 
cuique  viro  totus  terrarum  paruit  orbis, 

45  ille  lugurthino  clarus  Cimbroque  triumpho, 

quo  victrix  totiens  consule  Roma  fuit, 

in  caeno  Marius  iacuit  cannaque  palustri, 

pertulit  et  tanto  multa  pudenda  viro. 

1  quae  te  consimilem  res  nunc  (non) 

2  sed  et]  subito  8  recedit :  recedat  r 

4  om.  optimi  codd. 


1  Fortuna  was  often  depicted  standing  on  a  wheel. 
1  Dionysius,  the  tyrant,  who  was  expelled  and  kept  school 
at  Corinth. 

432 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  in.  23-48 

just.  What  crime  of  mine  prevents  you  from  being 
what  you  once  were  ?  Or  do  you  term  it  a  crime  that 
I  have  become  unfortunate  ?  If  you  brought  me  no 
aid  in  fact,  in  deeds,  you  might  have  sent  me  three 
words  on  a  sheet  of  paper.  I  can  scarce  believe  it — 
but  rumour  says  that  you  are  even  insulting  me  in 
my  fall,  that  you  do  not  spare  words.  Ah,  why  do 
you  do  this,  madman  ?  Why,  in  case  Fortune  should 
leave  you,  do  you  thus  rob  your  own  shipwreck  of 
tears  ?  She  is  a  goddess  who  admits  by  her  un- 
steady wheel  her  own  fickleness  ;  she  always  has  its 
crest  beneath  her  swaying  foot.1  She  is  less  stable 
than  any  leaf,  than  any  breeze  ;  to  match  her  fickle- 
ness, base  man,  there  is  only  yours  ! 

35  All  human  affairs  hang  by  a  slender  thread  ; 
chance  on  a  sudden  brings  to  ruin  what  once  was 
strong.  Who  has  not  heard  of  Croesus's  wealth  ? 
Yet  of  a  truth  he  was  captured  and  received  his  life 
from  an  enemy.  He  2  who  but  now  was  dreaded  in 
the  city  of  Syracuse,  scarce  kept  hunger  at  bay  by  a 
lowly  calling.  What  was  mightier  than  Magnus  3  ? 
Yet  in  his  flight  he  asked  with  humble  voice  a  client's 
aid.  The  man  whom  the  whole  world  obeyed  .  . 

4    he    who    was   famed   for 

his  triumphs  over  Jugurtha  and  the  Cimbri,  under 
whom  as  consul  Rome  was  so  often  victorious,  lay, 
Marius  though  he  was,  in  the  slime  and  marsh 
grass,  enduring  many  things  shameful  for  so  great 
a  man. 

8  Pompey.  After  the  battle  of  Pharsalus  he  fled  to 
Egypt  where  he  was  treacherously  slain. 

4  V.  44  is  omitted  by  the  best  manuscripts.  In  the  later 
ones  appears  the  spurious  line :  indigus  effectus  omnibus  ipse 
mag  Is  ("  himself  came  to  feel  need  more  than  any  "). 

2F  433 


OVID 

ludit  in  humanis  divina  potentia  rebus, 
50      et  certam  praesens  vix  habet x  hora  fidem. 
"  litus  ad  Euxinum  "  si  quis  mihi  diceret  "  ibis, 

et  metues,  arcu  ne  feriare  Getae," 
"  i,  bibe  "  dixissem  "  purgantes  pectora  sucos, 

quidquid  et  in  tota  nascitur  Anticyra." 
55  sum  tamen  haec  passus  :  nee,  si  mortalia  possem, 

et  summi  poteram  tela  cavere  dei. 
tu  quoque  fac  timeas,  et  quae  tibi  laeta  videntur 

dum  loqueris,  fieri  tristia  posse  puta. 


IV. 

Nulla  dies  adeo  est  australibus  umida  nimbis, 

non  intermissis  ut  fluat  imber  aquis. 
nee  sterilis  locus  ullus  ita  est,  ut  non  sit  in  illo 

mixta  fere  duris  utilis  herba  rubis. 
5  nil  adeo  fortuna  gravis  miserabile  fecit, 

ut  minuant  nulla  gaudia  parte  malum. 
ecce  domo  patriaque  carens  oculisque  meorura, 

naufragus  in  Getici  litoris  actus  aquas, 
qua  tamen  inveni  vultuin  diflfundere  causa 
10      possim,2  fortunae  nee  meminisse  meae. 
nam  mihi,  cum  fulva  solus  3  spatiarer  harena, 

visa  est  a  tergo  pinna  dedisse  sonum. 
respicio,  nee  erat  corpus,  quod  cernere  possem, 

verba  tamen  sunt  haec  aure  recepta  mea  : 
15  u  en  ego  laetarum  venio  tibi  nuntia  rerum 

Fama,  per  inmensas  aere  lapsa  vias. 
consule  Pompeio,  quo  non  tibi  carior  alter, 

candidus  et  felix  proximus  annus  erit." 

1  habet]  feret  *  possem  *  solus]  tristls 

434 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  in.  49— iv.  18 

49  Divine  power  plays  with  human  affairs,  and  sure 
trust  can  scarce  be  placed  in  the  present  hour.  If 
anybody  had  said  to  me,  "  You  shall  go  to  the 
Euxine  shore  and  you  shall  fear  wounds  from  a  Getic 
bow,"  I  would  have  said,  "  Go,  drink  a  potion  that 
clears  the  brain — everything  that  Anticyra x  pro- 
duces." Yet  have  I  suffered  this.  Though  I  might 
have  guarded  against  the  weapons  of  mortals,  yet  I 
could  not  protect  myself  against  those  of  a  supreme 
god.  See  that  you  too  feel  afraid  and  remember 
that  what  seems  happiness  to  you  has  power,  while 
you  speak,  to  change  into  sorrow. 

IV.  To  SEXTUS  POMPEIUS 

No  day  is  so  drenching  wet  from  the  southern 
clouds  that  the  rain  pours  in  uninterrupted  flood. 
No  place  is  so  barren  that  it  has  no  useful  plant,  oft- 
times  intermixed  with  the  tough  brambles.  Heavy 
fortune  has  rendered  nothing  so  wretched  that  no 
joys  lessen  in  some  part  its  sorrow.  Behold  how  I, 
reft  from  home  and  country  and  the  sight  of  my  own, 
driven  like  a  wreck  to  the  waters  of  the  Getic  land, 
have  yet  found  means  to  brighten  my  face  and  to 
forget  my  fate.  For  as  I  strolled  alone  upon  the 
yellow  sand,  behind  me,  it  seemed,  wings  rustled. 
I  looked  back  ;  there  was  no  form  that  I  could  see, 
but  my  ear  caught  these  words,  "  Lo,  I  come  to  bear 
thee  a  message  of  gladness  ;  I  am  Report,  and  I  have 
flown  through  measureless  distances  of  air.  Through 
the  consulship  of  Pompey,  who  is  dearer  to  you  than 
any  other,  the  coming  year  will  be  bright  and  blessed." 

1  Anticyra  produced  an  abundance  of  hellebore  which 
was  much  used  as  a  cure  for  insanity. 

435 


OVID 

dixit,  et  ut  laeto  Pontum  rumore  replevit, 
20      ad  gentes  alias  hinc  dea  vertit  iter. 
at  mihi  dilapsis  inter  nova  gaudia  curis 

excidit  asperitas  huius  iniqua  loci, 
ergo  ubi,  lane  biceps,  longum  reseraveris  annum, 

pulsus  et  a  sacro  mense  December  erit, 
25  purpura  Pompeium  summi  velabit  honoris, 

ne  titulis  quicquam  debeat  ille  suis. 
cernere  iam  videor  rumpi  paene  atria  turba, 

et  populum  laedi  deficiente  loco, 
templaque  Tarpeiae  primum  tibi  sedis  adiri, 
30      et  fieri  faciles  in  tua  vota  deos  ; 

colla  boves  niveos  certae  praebere  securi, 

quos  aluit  campis  herba  Falisca  suis  : 
cumque  deos  omnes,  tune  hos1  inpensius,  aequos 

esse  tibi  cupias,  cum  love  Caesar  erunt. 
35  curia  te  excipiet,  patresque  e  more  vocati 

intendent  aures  ad  tua  verba  suas. 
hos  ubi  facundo  tua  vox  hilaraverit  ore, 

utque  solet,  tulerit  prospera  verba  dies, 
egeris  et  meritas  superis  cum  Caesare  grates 
40      (qui  causam,  facias  cur  ita  saepe,  dabit), 
inde  domum  repetes  to  to  comitante  senatu, 

officium  populi  vix  capiente  domo. 
me  miserum,  turba  quod  non  ego  cernar  in  ilia, 

nee  poterunt  istis  lumina  nostra  frui  ! 
45  quod  licet,2  absentem  qua  possum  mente  videbo  : 
aspiciet  vultus  consulis  ilia  sui. 

1  quos  :   hos  £~ 
2  qualibet  unde  quamlibet  Heinsius 


1  January,  in   which   the   magistrates   entered   on   their 
terms. 

436 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  iv.  19-46 

She  spoke,  and  having  filled  the  Pontus  with  the  glad 
tidings  the  goddess  turned  her  course  to  other 
peoples.  But  for  me  care  fell  away  amidst  my  new 
joys,  the  cruel  harshness  of  this  land  vanished.  And 
so,  two-faced  Janus,  when  thou  hast  unsealed  the 
long  year,  when  December  is  driven  out  by  the  holy 
month,1  Pompey  will  assume  the  purple  of  highest 
office — that  to  his  titles  of  honour  he  may  leave  no 
debt  undischarged.2  Already  I  seem  to  behold  your 
halls  almost  bursting  with  the  crowd,  the  people 
bruised  for  lack  of  space,  the  temples  of  Tarpeia's 
abode  3  visited  by  you  as  your  first  act,  the  gods 
becoming  propitious  to  your  prayers,  the  snowy  oxen 
which  Falerii  has  nourished  in  her  own  meadows 
offering  their  throats  to  the  unerring  axe  ;  and  while 
from  all  the  gods  you  will  earnestly  seek  favour, 
those  of  your  more  eager  desire  shall  be  Jupiter  and 
Caesar.  The  senate-house  will  receive  you  and  the 
fathers  summoned  in  the  wonted  fashion  will  lend 
attentive  ear  to  your  words.  When  they  have  been 
delighted  by  the  words  that  will  fall  from  your 
eloquent  lips,  when  according  to  custom  the  day 
shall  offer  words  of  good  omen,  and  you  have  rendered 
due  thanks  to  the  gods  above  and  to  Caesar,  who  will 
give  you  cause  to  repeat  them  often,  you  will  return 
home  escorted  by  the  whole  senate,  the  house  scarce 
finding  room  for  the  people's  homage.  Wretched 
am  I  that  I  shall  not  be  seen  in  that  throng,  that  my 
eyes  will  not  be  able  to  enjoy  that  sight  !  But  this 
I  may  do  :  in  your  absence  I  can  see  you  in  my 
mind ;  that  will  behold  the  features  of  its  loved 

a  As  if  the  series  of  offices  were  a  score  which  Pompey 
would  pay  in  full  when  he  became  consul. 
8  The  Capitoline  Hill. 

437 


OVID 

di  faciant  aliquo  subeat  tibi  tempore  nostrum 

nomen,  et  "  heu  "  dicas  "  quid  miser  ille  facit  ?  " 
haec  tua  pertulerit  si  quis  mini  verba,  fatebor 
50      protinus  exilium  mollius  esse  meum. 

V. 

Ite,  leves  elegi,  doctas  ad  consulis  aures, 

verbaque  honorato  ferte  legenda  viro. 
longa  via  est,  nee  vos  pedibus  proceditis  aequis, 

tectaque  brumali  sub  nive  terra  latet. 
5  cum  gelidam  Thracen  et  opertum  nubibus  Haemum 

et  maris  lonii  transieritis  aquas, 
luce  minus  decima  dominam  venietis  in  urbem, 

ut  festinatum  non  faciatis  iter. 
protinus  inde  domus  vobis  Pompeia  petatur  : 
10      non  est  Augusto  iunctior  ulla  foro. 

siquis,  ut  in  populo,  qui  sitis  et  unde  requiret, 

nomina  decepta  quaelibet  aure  ferat. 
ut  sit  enim  tutum,  sicut  reor  esse,  fateri, 

verba  minus  certe  ficta  timoris  habent. 
15  copia  nee  vobis  nullo  prohibente  videndi 

consulis,  ut  limen  contigeritis,  erit. 
aut  reget  ille  suos  dicendo  iura  Quirites, 

conspicuum  signis  cum  premet  altus  ebur  : 
aut  populi  reditus  positam  componet  ad  has  tarn, 
20      et  minui  magnae  non  sinet  urbis  opes  : 
aut,  ubi  erunt  patres  in  lulia  templa  vocati, 

de  tanto  dignis  consule  rebus  aget : 
aut  feret  Augusto  solitam  natoque  salutem, 

deque  parum  noto  consulet  officio. 

1  A  spear  was  set  up  where  the  consul  was  letting  con- 
tracts, etc. 

438 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  iv.  47— v.  24 

consul.  May  the  gods  grant  that  at  some  moment 
my  name  may  come  into  your  mind,  that  you  may 
say,"  Alas  !  what  is  that  miserable  man  doing  now  ?  " 
If  such  words  of  yours  be  reported  to  me  by  any,  I 
shall  at  once  confess  that  my  exile  is  easier  to  bear. 


V.  To  SEXTUS  POMPEIUS 

On  !  light  couplets,  to  the  consul's  learned  ears, 
and  bear  a  message  for  the  honoured  man  to  read. 
Long  is  the  way,  nor  do  you  advance  with  even  steps, 
and  a  mantle  of  winter  snow  conceals  the  land. 
Crossing  frozen  Thrace  with  Haemus  hidden  in 
clouds  and  the  waters  of  the  Ionian  sea,  on  the  tenth 
day  or  before  you  will  reach  the  imperial  city  though 
you  make  no  hurried  journey.  Forthwith  then  seek 
the  house  of  Pompeius  ;  none  is  closer  to  the  forum 
of  Augustus.  If  any,  as  may  happen  in  the  crowd, 
asks  who  you  are  and  whence  you  come,  beguile  his 
ear  with  any  name  you  will.  For  even  though  it 
should  be  safe,  as  I  think  it  is,  to  make  confession, 
surely  fictitious  words  involve  less  danger.  Nor  will 
you  have  the  power  unhindered  to  see  the  consul, 
even  though  you  reach  the  threshold :  either  he  will  be 
ruling  his  citizens  by  the  law's  word  while  he  sits  high 
upon  an  ivory  chair  splendid  with  carving,  or  beside 
the  implanted  spear l  he  will  be  ordering  the  people's 
revenues,  not  allowing  the  wealth  of  the  mighty 
city  to  suffer  loss  ;  or  when  the  fathers  have  been 
summoned  to  Julius's  temple,  he  will  be  debating 
matters  worthy  of  a  great  consul ;  or  he  will  be 
bringing  to  Augustus  and  his  son  the  accustomed 
greeting,  seeking  advice  about  an  unfamiliar  duty. 

439 


OVID 

25  tempus  ab  his  vacuum  Caesar  Germanicus  omne 

auferet :  a  magnis  hunc  colit  ille  dels, 
cum  tamen  a  turba  rerum  requieverit  harum, 

ad  vos  mansuetas  porriget  ille  manus, 
quidque  parens  ego  vester  agam  fortasse  requiret. 
30      talia  vos  illi  reddere  verba  volo  : 

"  vivit  adhuc  vitamque  tibi  debere  fatetur, 
quani  prius  a  miti  Caesare  munus  habet. 
te  sibi,  cum  fugeret,  memori  solet  ore  referre 

barbariae  tutas  exhibuisse  vias  : 
35  sanguine  Bistonium  quod  non  tepefecerit  ensem, 

effectum  cura  pectoris  esse  tui  : 
addita  praeterea  vitae  quoque  multa  tuendae 

munera,  ne  proprias  attenuaret  opes, 
pro  quibus  ut  meritis  referatur  gratia,  iurat 
40      se  fore  mancipii1  tempus  in  omne  tui. 
nam  prius  umbrosa  carituros  arbore  montes, 

et  freta  velivolas  non  habitura  rates, 
fluminaque  in  fontes  cursu  reditura  supino, 

gratia  quam  meriti  possit  abire  tui." 
45  haec  ubi  dixeritis,  servet  sua  dona  rogate. 
sic  fuerit  vestrae  causa  peracta  viae. 

VI. 

Quam  legis,  ex  illis  tibi  venit  epistula,  Brute, 

Nasonem  nolles  in  quibus  esse  locis. 
sed  tu  quod  nolles,  voluit  miserabile  fatum. 

ei  mini !  plus  illud  quam  tua  vota  valet. 
5  in  Scythia  nobis  quinquennis  Olympias  acta  est : 

iam  tempus  lustri  transit  in  alterius. 
perstat  enim  fortuna  tenax,  votisque  malignum 

opponit  nostris  insidiosa2  pedem. 

1  mancipium  .  .  .  tuum  f  invidiosa 

440 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  v.  25— vi.  8 

All  the  time  left  from  these  offices  Germanicus 
Caesar  will  claim  :  him  he  reverences  next  after  the 
great  gods. 

27  Yet  when  he  finds  rest  from  this  crowd  of  affairs, 
he  will  extend  to  you  his  kindly  hands,  and  he  will 
ask  perhaps  how  I,  your  parent,  am  faring.  In  such 
words  as  these  I  wish  you  to  reply  :  "  He  still  lives, 
confessing  that  he  owes  the  life  to  you  which  first 
he  holds  as  the  gift  of  Caesar's  mercy.  He  is  wont 
to  say  with  grateful  lips  that  upon  his  journey  to 
exile  you  made  the  ways  of  the  barbarian  world  safe 
for  him  :  that  his  blood  stained  no  Bistonian  sword 
was  owing  to  your  heartfelt  care  ;  that  you  gave  him 
besides  many  gifts  to  preserve  his  life  that  his  own 
resources  might  not  be  impaired.  To  thank  you  for 
these  services  he  swears  to  be  your  slave  for  all  time. 
For  the  mountains  will  sooner  be  stripped  of  their 
shady  trees  and  the  seas  of  their  sailing  ships,  the 
rivers  will  turn  and  flow  backward  to  their  sources 
before  he  can  cease  to  be  grateful  for  your  service." 

46  When  you  have  spoken  thus,  ask  him  to  preserve 
his  own  gift ;  so  will  the  purpose  of  your  journey  be 
accomplished. 

VI.  To  BRUTUS 

The  letter  that  you  are  reading,  Brutus,1  has  come 
from  that  land  in  which  you  would  not  wish  Naso  to 
be.  Yet  what  you  would  not  wish,  wretched  fate 
has  willed  for  me.  Alas  !  fate  is  stronger  than  your 
prayers.  In  Scythia  I  have  passed  the  five  years  of 
an  Olympiad  ;  the  time  is  now  passing  to  a  second 
lustrum.  For  obstinate  fortune  persists  and  craftily 
opposes  a  malicious  foot  to  my  desires.  Thou, 

1  A  close  friend  of  Ovid's  otherwise  unknown,  c/.  i.  1. 

441 


OVID 

certus  eras  pro  me,  Fabiae  laus,  Maxime,  gentis, 
10      numen  ad  Augustum  supplice  voce  loqui. 

occidis  ante  preces,  causamque  ego,  Maxime,  mortis 

(nee  fuero  tanti)  me  reor  esse  tuae. 
iam  timeo  nostram  cuiquam  mandare  salutem  : 

ipsum  morte  tua  concidit  auxilium. 
15  coeperat  Augustus  deceptae  ignoscere  culpae  : 

spem  nostram  terras  deseruitque  simul. 
quale  tamen  potui,  de  caelite,  Brute,  recenti 

vestra  procul  positus  carmen  in  ora  dedi. 
quae  prosit  pietas  utmam  mihi,  sitque  malorum 
20      iam  modus  et  sacrae  mitior  ira  domus. 
te  quoque  idem  liquido  possum  iurare  precari, 

o  mini  non  dubia  cognite  Brute  nota. 
nam  cum  praestiteris  verum  mihi  semper  amorem, 

hie  tamen  adverse  tempore  crevit  amor, 
25  quique  tuas  pariter  lacrimas  nostrasque  videret, 

passuros  poenam  crederet  esse  duos, 
lenem  te  miscris  genuit  natura,  nee  ulli 

mitius  ingenium,  quam  tibi,  Brute,  dedit : 
ut  qui  quid  valeas  ignoret  Marte  forensi, 
30      posse  tuo  peragi  vix  putet  ore  reos. 

scilicet  eiusdem  est,  quamvis  pugnare  videntur, 

supplicibus  facilem,  sontibus  esse  truccm. 
cum  tibi  suscepta  est  legis  vindicta  severae, 
verba  velut  tinctu l  singula  virus  habent. 
35  hostibus  eveniat  quam  sis  violentus  in  armis 
sentire  et  linguae  tela  subire  tuae. 

1  tinctum  corr.  Ehwald 


1  Paullus  Fabius  Maximus  (Introd.  p.  xii). 

2  This  poem  on  the  apotheosis  of  Augustus  (cf.  also 
iv.  9.  131)  is  not  extant.     Augustus  died  A.D.  14,  a  few 
442 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  vi.  9-36 

Maximus,1  glory  of  the  Fabian  race,  hadst  resolved  to 
appeal  for  me  to  the  deity  of  Augustus  with  the  voice 
of  a  suppliant.  Thou  didst  die  before  the  prayer  was 
uttered,  and  I  count  myself,  Maximus — though  I  am 
not  worth  so  much — the  cause  of  thy  death.  Now  I 
fear  to  entrust  my  salvation  to  any  ;  help  itself  has 
perished  with  thy  death. 

15  Augustus  had  begun  to  pardon  the  fault  I  com- 
mitted in  error  ;  my  hopes  at  once  and  the  world  he 
left  desolate.  Yet  from  my  distant  abode  I  sent  for 
your  reading  a  poem — such  poem  as  I  could,  Brutus, 
about  the  new  god.2  May  this  act  of  reverence  aid 
me,  let  there  now  be  an  end  to  my  sorrows,  a  gentler 
wrath  on  the  part  of  the  sacred  household.  1  can 
swear  with  a  clear  conscience  that  you  too  utter  the 
same  prayer,  Brutus — you  whom  I  know  from 
indubitable  proof.  For  although  you  have  ever 
granted  me  sincere  love,  yet  this  love  has  increased 
in  my  time  of  adversity.  One  who  saw  your  tears 
that  matched  with  mine  would  have  believed  that 
both  were  about  to  suffer  punishment.  Nature  bore 
you  kind  to  the  wretched  ;  to  none,  Brutus,  has  she 
given  a  kinder  heart,  so  that  he  who  knows  not  your 
power  in  the  wars  of  the  forum  would  scarce  suppose 
that  your  lips  can  prosecute  defendants.  In  truth 
the  same  man,  although  such  qualities  seem  to  battle 
with  each  other,  is  able  to  be  gentle  with  suppliants, 
but  harsh  to  the  guilty.  When  you  have  taken  it 
upon  yourself  to  champion  the  strict  law,  every  word 
is  as  though  it  were  steeped  in  poison.  May  it 
befall  enemies  to  feel  how  impetuous  you  are  in  arms, 
to  suffer  the  missiles  of  your  tongue  !  On  these  you 

months  after  Paulus  Fabius  Maximus.     The  present  letter, 
therefore,  may  be  dated  in  the  autumn  or  winter,  A.D.  14-15. 

443 


OVID 

quae  tibi  tarn  tenui  cura  limantur,  ut  omnes 

istius  ingenium  corporis  esse  negent. 
at  si  quern  laedi  Fortuna  cernis  iniqua, 
40      mollior  est  animo  femina  nulla  tuo. 

hoc  ego  praecipue  sensi,  cum  magna  meorum 

notiticim  pars  est  infitiata  rnei. 
inmemor  illorum,  vestri  non  inmemor  umquam, 

qui  mala  solliciti  nostra  levatis,  cro. 
45  et  prius  hie  nimium  nobis  conterminus  Hister 

in  caput  Euxino  de  mare  vertet  iter, 
utque  Thyesteae  redeant  si  tempora  mensae, 

Solis  ad  Eoas  currus  agetur  aquas, 
quam  quisquam  vcstrum,  qui  me  doluistis  ademptum, 
60     arguat  ingratum  non  meminisse  sui. 

VII. 

Missus  es  Euxinas  quoniam,  Vestalis,  ad  undas, 

ut  positis  reddas  iura  sub  axe  locis, 
aspicis  en  praesens,  quali  iaccamus  in  arvo, 

nee  me  testis  eris  falsa  solere  queri. 
5  accedet  voci  per  te  non  irrita  nostrae, 

Alpinis  iuvenis  regibus  orte,  fides, 
ipse  vides  certe  glacie  concrescere  Pontum, 

ipse  vides  rigido  stantia  vina  gelu  ; 
ipse  vides,  onerata  fcrox  ut  ducat  lazyx 
10      per  medias  Histri  plaustra  bubulcus  aquas, 
aspicis  et  mitti  sub  adunco  toxica  ferro, 

et  telum  causas  mortis  habere  duas. 
atque  utinam  pars  haec  tantum  spectata  fuisset, 

non  etiam  proprio  cognita  Marte  tibi  ! 

1  The  feast  at  which  the  flesh  of  Thyestes1  sons  was  served 
to  him  by  Atreus. 

444 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  vi.  37— vn.  14 

use  the  file  with  such  extreme  care  that  none  would 
recognize  in  them  your  real  nature.  But  if  you  see 
any  injured  by  unjust  Fortune,  no  woman  is  more 
tender  than  your  heart.  This  I  felt  above  all  when 
the  most  of  my  friends  denied  knowledge  of  me.  I 
shall  forget  them,  but  you  I  shall  never  forget,  who 
lighten  the  woes  of  my  trouble.  Sooner  shall  the 
Hister,  all  too  near  me,  turn  his  march  back  from 
the  Euxine  sea  towards  its  source  and,  as  if  the  age 
of  Thyestean  banquets 1  should  return,  the  chariot  of 
the  sun  shall  sooner  be  driven  towards  the  eastern 
waters  than  that  any  one  of  you  who  have  mourned 
my  exile  shall  call  me  a  forgetful  ingrate. 


VII.  To  VESTALIS 

Seeing  that  you  have  been  sent  to  the  Euxine 
waters,  Vestalis,  to  dispense  justice  to  those  lands 
which  lie  beneath  the  pole,  you  .behold  face  to  face  in 
what  manner  of  country  I  am  cast  and  you  will  bear 
witness  that  I  am  not  wont  to  utter  false  complaints. 
My  words  will  receive  through  you,  young  scion  of 
Alpine  kings,  no  idle  support.  You  yourself  see  the 
Pontus  stiffen  with  ice,  you  yourself  see  the  wine 
standing  rigid  with  the  frost ;  you  yourself  see  how 
the  fierce  lazygian  herdsman  guides  his  loaded  wagon 
over  the  middle  of  Hister 's  waters.  You  behold  how 
poison  is  hurled  on  the  barbed  steel  and  the  missile 
possesses  two  causes  of  death.  And  would  that  this 
region  had  merely  met  your  sight,  that  you  had 
not  also  experienced  it,  in  a  battle  of  your  own  ! 

445 


OVID 

16  tenditur l  ad  primum  per  densa  pericula  pilum, 

contigit  ex  merito  qui  tibi  nuper  honor, 
sit  licet  hie  titulus  plenus  2  tibi  fructibus,  ingens 

ipsa  tamen  virtus  ordine  maior  erit. 
non  negat  hoc  Hister,  cuius  tua  dextera  quondam 
20      purdceam  Getico  sanguine  fecit  aquam. 
non  negat  Aegisos,  quae  te  subeunte  recepta 

sensit  in  ingenio  nil  opis  esse  loci, 
nam,  dubium  positu  melius  defensa  manune, 

urbs  erat  in  summo  nubibus  aequa  iugo. 
25  Sithonio  regi  ferus  interceperat  illam 

hostis  et  ereptas  victor  habebat  opes, 
donee  fluminea  devecta  Vitellius  unda 

intulit  exposito  milite  signa  Getis. 
at  tibi,  progenies  alti  fortissima  Donni, 
30      venit  in  adversos  impetus  ire  viros. 

nee  mora,  conspicuus  longe  fulgentibus  armis, 

fortia  ne  possint  facta  latere  caves, 
ingentique  .gradu  contra  ferrumque  locumque 

saxaque  brumali  grandine  plura  subis. 
35  nee  te  missa  super  iaculorum  turba  moratur, 

nee  quae  vipereo  tela  cruore  madent. 
spicula  cum  pictis  haerent  in  casside  pinnis, 

parsque  fere  scuti  vulnere  nulla  vacat. 
nee  corpus  cunctos  feliciter  effugit  ictus  : 
40      sed  minor  est  acri  laudis  amore  dolor, 
talis  apud  Troiam  Danais  pro  navibus  Aiax 

dicitur  Hectoreas  sustinuisse  faces, 
ut  propius  ventum  est  admotaque  dextera  dextrae, 

resque  fero  potuit  comminus  ense  geri, 

1  tenditis  corr.  Owen  •  plenis 

446 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  vii. 

Through  crowding  perils  is  a  way  won  to  the  first 
rank,1  a  deserved  honour  which  has  recently  fallen 
to  your  lot.  Even  though  this  honour  be  filled  with 
rewards  for  you,  yet  your  great  worth  will  be  greater 
than  your  rank.  This  the  Hister  acknowledges, 
whose  water  your  hand  once  empurpled  with  Getic 
blood.  Aegisos  acknowledges  it,  which  retaken  at 
your  approach,  came  to  know  that  the  nature  of  its 
site  availed  nothing.  For  'tis  uncertain  whether  it 
was  better  defended  by  its  situation  or  by  force — 
the  city  that  towered  to  the  clouds  upon  a  lofty  ridge. 
A  fierce  foe  had  cut  it  off  from  the  Sithonian  king, 
and  in  victory  held  its  captured  treasure,  until 
Vitellius,  borne  adown  the  stream,  disembarked  his 
soldiers  and  advanced  his  standards  against  the 
Getae.  But  you,  bravest  descendant  of  lofty 
Donnus,  were  impelled  to  rush  upon  the  confronting 
foe.  At  once  far  seen  in  glittering  arms,  you  take 
heed  that  brave  acts  may  not  be  hidden ;  with  mighty 
stride  you  charge  the  steel,  the  hill,  and  stones 
greater  in  number  than  winter's  hail.  Neither  the 
crowding  missiles  hurled  from  above  halt  you  nor 
those  steeped  in  viper's  blood.  Arrows  with  painted 
feathers  cling  to  your  helmet,  scarce  any  part  of  your 
shield  lacks  a  wound.  Your  body  has  not  the  luck 
to  escape  every  stroke,  but  your  pain  is  less  than  your 
keen  love  of  glory.  Such  at  Troy  was  Danaan  Ajax 
when,  they  say,  in  defence  of  the  Grecian  ships  he 
bore  the  brunt  of  Hector's  firebrands.  When  you 
came  nearer,  hand  meeting  hand,  and  the  battle 
could  be  fought  at  close  quarters  with  the  fierce 

1  The  primus  p'dus  was  the  centurion  of  highest  rank  in 
each  legion. 

447 


OVID 

45  dicere  difficile  est  quid  Mars  tuus  egerit  illic, 

quotque  neci  dederis  quosque  quibusque  modis. 
ense  tuo  factos  calcabas  victor  acervos, 

inposi toque  Getes  sub  pede  multus  erat. 
pugnat  ad  exemplum  primi  minor  ordine  pili, 
60      multaque  fert  miles  vulnera,  multa  facit. 
sed  tantum  virtus  alios  tua  praeterit  omnes, 

ante  citos  quantum  Pegasus  ibit l  equos. 
vincitur  Aegisos,  testataque  tempus  in  omne 

sunt  tua,  Vestalis,  carmine  facta  meo. 


VIII. 

Littera  sera  quidem,  studiis  exculte  Suilli, 

hue  tua  pervenit,  sed  mihi  grata  tamen, 
qua,  pia  si  possit  superos  lenire  rogando 

gratia,  laturum  te  mihi  dicis  opem. 
6  ut  iam  nil  praestes,  animi  sum  factus  amici 

debitor,  et  meritum  velle  iuvare  voco. 
impetus  iste  tuus  longum  modo  duret  in  aevum, 

neve  malis  pietas  sit  tua  lassa  meis. 

ius  aliquod  faciunt  adfinia  vincula  nobis, 

10      quae  semper  maneant  inlabefacta  precor. 

nam  tibi  quae  coniunx,  eadem  mihi  filia  paene  est, 

et  quae  te  generurn,  me  vocat  ilia  virum. 
ei  mihi,  si  lectis  vultum  tu  versibus  istis 

ducis  et  adfinem  te  pudet  esse  meum  ! 
15  at  nihil  hie  dignum  poteris  reperire  pudore 

praeter  Fortunam,  quae  mihi  caeca  fuit. 
seu  genus  excutias,  equites  ab  origine  prima 

usque  per  innumeros  inveniemur  avos  : 

1  ibat 
443 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  vn.  45— vni.  18 

sword,  'tis  hard  to  tell  of  your  martial  deeds  there, 
how  many  you  gave  to  death,  who  they  were  and 
how  they  fell.  Upon  heaps  of  dead,  the  work  of 
your  sword,  you  trod  in  victory  ;  many  a  Getan  lay 
beneath  your  planted  foot.  The  soldiers  of  lesser 
rank  fought  after  the  model  of  their  centurion, 
enduring  many  wounds,  giving  many.  But  your 
valour  as  far  surpassed  all  others  as  Pegasus  distances 
a  swift  steed.  Aegisos  is  conquered,  arid  for  all  time, 
Vestalis,  my  song  bears  witness  to  your  deeds. 


VIII.  To  SUILLIUS 

Your  letter,  accomplished  Suillius,  has  been  late  in 
reaching  me,  yet  has  it  brought  me  pleasure.  There- 
in you  say  that  so  far  as  friendly  loyalty  can  soften 
the  gods  by  petition  you  will  bring  me  aid.  Though 
you  should  give  me  nothing  more,  your  friendly  pur- 
pose has  placed  rne  in  your  debt,  for  I  term  the  will 
to  aid  a  service.  Let  only  that  impulse  of  yours 
endure  for  long  ages  and  let  not  your  loyalty  be  worn 
out  by  my  misfortunes.  Some  claim  our  bonds  of 
kinship  make  and  1  pray  that  these  may  ever  last 
un weakened.  For  she  who  is  your  wife  is  almost  my 
daughter  ; l  she  who  calls  you  son-in-law,  calls  me 
husband.  Woe  is  me  if  when  you  read  these  verses 
you  frown  and  feel  shame  that  you  are  my  kinsman  ! 
Yet  you  will  be  able  to  discover  in  me  nothing  to 
shame  you  save  only  Fortune,  who  to  me  has  proved 
blind.  If  you  examine  our  lineage,  we  shall  be  found 
knights  from  our  earliest  origins  all  through  a  line 

1  Ovid's  step-daughter  Perilla,  cf.  T.  iii.  7. 

2  Q  4  49 


OVID 

sive  veils  qui  sint  mores  inquirere  nostri, 
20      errorem  misero  detrahe,  labe  carent. 
tu  modo  si  quid  agi  sperabis  posse  precando, 

quos  colis,  exora  supplice  voce  deos. 
di  tibi  sunt1  Caesar  iuvenis.     tua  numina  placa. 

hac  certe  nulla  est  notior  ara  tibi. 
25  non  sinit  ilia  sui  vanas  antistitis  umquam 

esse  preces  :  nostris  hinc  pete  rebus  opem. 
quamlibet  exigua  si  nos  ea  iuverit  aura, 

obruta  de  mediis  cumba  resurget  aquis. 
tune  ego  tura  feram  rapidis  sollemnia  flammis, 
30      et  valeant  quantum  numina  testis  ero. 

nee  tibi  de  Pario  statuam,  Germanice,  templum 

marmore  :  carpsit  opes  ilia  ruina  meas. 
templa  domus  facient  vobis  urbesque  beatae  ; 

Naso  suis  opibus,  carmine  gratus  erit. 
35  parva  quidem  fateor  pro  magnis  munera  reddi, 

cum  pro  concessa  verba  salute  damus. 
sed  qui,  quam  potuit,  dat  maxima,  gratus  abunde  est, 

et  finem  pietas  contigit  ilia  suum. 
nee  quae  de  parva  pauper  dis  libat  acerra 
40      tura  minus  grandi  quam  data  lance  valent. 
agnaque  tarn  lactens  quam  gramine  pasta  Falisco 

victima  Tarpeios  inficit  icta  focos. 
nee  tamen  officio  vatum  per  carmina  facto 

principibus  res  est  aptior  ulla  viris. 
45  carmina  vestrarum  peragunt  praeconia  laudum, 

neve  sit  actorum  fama  caduca  cavent. 
carmine  fit  vivax  virtus,  expersque  sepulchri 

notitiam  serae  posteritatis  habet. 
tabida  consumit  ferrum  lapidemque  vetustas, 
50      nullaque  res  maius  tempore  robur  habet. 

\  sint 

1  Germanicus. 
450 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  vin.  19-50 

of  countless  ancestors,  or  if  you  wish  to  ask  what  is 
my  character,  remove  my  blunder  and  my  character 
is  spotless. 

21  Do  you,  if  you  hope  that  anything  can  be  accom- 
plished by  petition,  beseech  with  a  suppliant's  prayer 
the  gods  you  worship.  Your  gods  are — the  young 
Caesar.1  Propitiate  your  divinity.  No  altar  surely 
is  more  familiar  to  you  than  this.  That  altar  never 
permits  the  supplications  of  its  priest  to  be  in  vain : 
seek  from  it  succour  for  my  fate.  No  matter  how 
slight  the  breeze  with  which  it  aids  me,  my  bark 
now  o'erwhelmed  will  rise  once  more  from  the  midst 
of  the  waters.  Then  will  I  offer  to  the  devouring 
flames  holy  incense  bearing  witness  to  the  power  of 
the  divinity.  I  will  rear  no  temple  of  Parian  marble 
for  thee,  Germanicus  ;  that  disaster  tore  away  my 
wealth  ;  temples  will  be  built  for  thee  and  thine  by 
rich  houses  and  cities  ;  Naso  will  show  gratitude 
with  verse,  his  only  wealth.  Poor  indeed,  I  con- 
fess, is  the  gift  that  is  rendered  for  great  service, 
if  I  give  words  in  return  for  the  grant  of  salvation. 
But  he  who  gives  his  utmost,  is  lavishly  grateful  and 
that  loyal  service  has  reached  its  goal.  The  incense 
offered  by  the  poor  man  from  his  humble  censer  has 
not  less  effect  than  that  given  from  a  huge  platter. 
The  nursling  lamb  as  well  as  the  victim  fed  on 
Faliscan  grass  dyes  in  sacrifice  the  Tarpeian  altar. 
Yet  than  the  proffered  tribute  of  poets*  verse  naught 
else  more  befits  the  leaders  of  men.  Verse  heralds 
abroad  your  praises  and  sees  to  it  that  the  glory  of 
your  deeds  falls  not  to  the  ground.  By  verse  virtue 
lives  on  and,  avoiding  the  tomb,  becomes  known  to 
late  posterity.  Wasting  time  consumes  both  steel 
and  stone  ;  no  thing  has  a  strength  greater  than  that 

4-51 


OVID 

scripta  ferunt  annos.     scriptis  Agamemnona  nosti, 

et  quisquis  contra  vel  simul  arma  tulit. 
quis  Thebas  septemque  duces  sine  carmine  nosset, 

et  quicquid  post  haec,  quidquid  et  ante  fuit  ? 
55  di  quoque  carminibus,  si  fas  est  dicere,  fiunt, 

tantaque  maiestas  ore  canentis  eget. 
siV  Chaos  ex  ilia  naturae  mole  prioris 

digestum  partes  scimus  habere  suas  : 
sic  adfectantes  caelestia  regna  Gigantes 
GO      ad  Styga  nimbifero  vindicis  igne  datos  : 
sic  victor  laudem  supcratis  Liber  ab  Indis, 

Alcides  capta  traxit  ab  Oeehalia. 
et  modo,  Caesar,  avum,  quern  virtus  addidit  astris, 

sacrarunt  aliqua  carmina  parte  tuum. 
65  siquid  adhuc  igitur  vivi,  Germanice,  nostro 

restat  in  ingenio,  servict  omne  tibi. 
non  poles  officium  vatis  contemnere  vates  : 

iudicio  pretium  res  habet  ista  tuo. 
quod  nisi  te  nomen  tantum  ad  maiora  vocasset, 
70      gloria  Pieridum  sunima  luturus  eras. 

sed  dare  materiam  nobis  quam  carmina  mains  : 

nee  tamcn  ex  toto  deserere  ilia  poles. 
n«im  modo  bella  geris,  mmieris  modo  verba  coerces, 

quodque  aliis  opus  est,  hoc  tibi  lusus  erit. 
75  utque  nee  ad  citharam  nee  ad  arcum  segnis  Apollo 

est, 

sed  venit  ad  sacras  nervus  uterque  manus, 
sic  tibi  nee  docti  desunt  nee  principis  artes, 
rnixta  sed  est  ariimo  cum  love  Musa  tuo. 
quae  quoniam  nee  nos  unda  summovit  ab  ilia, 
80      ungula  Gorgonci  quam  cava  fecit  equi, 

1  Hercules.  2  Gernianirus  dabblt'd  in  poetry. 

8  Hippocrene  (on  Helicon),  created  by  the  hoof-beat  of 
Pegasus. 

452 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  vin.  51-80 

of  time.  But  writing  endures  the  years.  Through 
writing  you  know  Agamemnon  and  everyone  who 
bore  arms  with  him  or  against  him.  Who  would 
know  of  Thebes  and  the  seven  leaders,  were  it  not 
for  verse,  or  of  all  that  went  before  and  after  ?  Even 
the  gods,  if  'tis  right  to  say  this,  are  created  by  verse  ; 
their  mighty  majesty  needs  the  bard's  voice.  By 
this  it  is  that  we  know  that  Chaos  became  separated 
from  that  mass  of  earlier  nature  and  took  on  his 
divisions  ;  by  this  that  the  Giants  aiming  at  the 
sovereignty  of  heaven  were  hurled  to  the  Styx  by  the 
cloud-bearing  thunderbolt  of  the  avenger  ;  by  this 
that  victorious  Liber  won  renown  from  the  conquering 
of  the  Indies,  Alcides1  from  the  capture  of  Oechalia. 
And  but  now,  O  Caesar,  thy  grandsire,  whom  his 
virtue  has  sent  to  the  starry  heaven,  owed  in  some 
measure  his  sanctity  to  verse.  If  there  be  still  any 
life,  Gerrnanicus,  in  my  genius,  it  shall  wholly  serve 
thee.  Thou  canst  not  as  a  poet 2  despise  the  tribute 
of  a  poet,  for  that  has  a  value  in  thy  judgment. 
Wherefore  if  a  great  name  had  not  called  thee  to 
greater  things,  thou  wert  destined  to  be  the  supreme 
glory  of  the  Pierians.  But  'tis  a  greater  thing  to 
furnish  themes  for  us  than  thyself  to  compose  ;  yet 
verse  thou  canst  not  wholly  leave  neglected.  Now 
thou  art  waging  war,  now  to  numbers  thou  art  con- 
fining words  ;  what  is  toil  for  others  will  for  thee  be 
play.  Just  as  Apollo  is  no  sluggard  either  with  lyre 
or  bow  but  either  string  is  obedient  to  his  sacred 
hands,  so  thou  lackcst  the  arts  neither  of  the  scholar 
nor  the  prince,  but  in  thy  mind  the  Muse  and  Jupiter 
are  wedded.  And  since  the  Muse  has  not  removed 
me  from  that  spring  3  which  the  hollow  hoof  of  the 
Gorgonean  steed  created,  may  it  profit  me  and  aid 

453 


OVID 

prosit  opemque  ferat  communia  sacra  tueri, 

atque  isdem  studiis  inposuisse  manum  : 
litora  pellitis  nimium  subiecta  Corallis 

ut  tandem  saevos  effugiamque  Getas  : 
85  clausaque  si  misero  patria  est,  ut  ponar  in  ullo,1 

qui  minus  Ausonia  distet2  ab  urbe,  loco, 
unde  tuas  possim  laudes  celebrare  recentes 

magnaque  quam  minima  facta  referre  mora. 
tangat  ut  hoc  votum  caelestia,  care  Suilli, 
90      numina,  pro  socero  paene  precare  tuo. 

IX. 

Unde  licet,  non  unde  iuvat,  Graecine,  salutem 

mittit  ab  Euxinis  hanc  tibi  Naso  vadis, 
missaque  di  faciant  Auroram  occurrat  ad  illam, 

bis  senos  fasces  quae  tibi  prima  dabit  : 
5  ut,  quoniam  sine  me  tanges  Capitolia  consul 

ct  fiam  turbae  pars  ego  nulla  tuae, 
in  domini  subeat  partes  et  praestet  amici 

officium  iusso  littera  nostra  die. 
atque  ego  si  fatis  genitus  melioribus  essem 
10      et  mea  sincero  curreret  axe  rota, 

quo  mine  nostra  manus  per  scriptum  fungitur,  esset 

lingua  salutandi  munere  functa  tui, 
gratatusque  darem  cum  dulcibus  oscula  verbis, 
nee  minus  ille  meus  quam  tuus  esset  honor. 
16  ilia,  confiteor,  sic  essem  luce  superbus, 

ut  caperet  fastus  vix  domus  ulla  meos  : 
dumque  latus  sancti  cingit  tibi  turba  senatus, 
consulis  ante  pedes  ire  iuberer  eques  ; 

1  illo :  ullo  c  2  distat  :  distet  r 

1  The  consulship. 
4-54 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  vin.  81— ix.  18 

me  that  I  maintain  the  same  rites  as  thyself,  that 
I  have  set  my  hand  to  the  same  pursuit.  This  shore 
all  too  exposed  to  the  skin-clad  Cor  alii  and  the  savage 
Getae — may  I  at  last  escape  it ;  and  if  my  country  is 
closed  against  such  a  wretch,  may  I  be  set  in  any 
place  less  distant  than  this  from  the  Ausonian  city, 
whence  I  can  celebrate  thy  fresh  praises  and  relate 
thy  mighty  deeds  with  least  delay. 

89  That  this  petition,  dear  Suillius,  may  touch  the 
heavenly  powers,  utter  a  prayer  for  him  who  is  all 
but  the  father  of  thy  wife. 


IX.  To  GRAECINUS 

Whence  he  may,  not  whence  he  would,  Graecinus, 
this  greeting  Naso  sends  you  from  the  Euxine  waters. 
'Tis  sent,  and  the  gods  grant  that  it  may  come  to 
you  on  that  dawn  which  shall  first  bring  to  you  the 
twice  six  fasces.  For  since  without  my  presence  you 
will  reach  the  Capitol  as  consul,  and  I  shall  form  no 
part  of  your  retinue,  let  my  missive  take  its  master's 
place  and  bestow  the  homage  of  a  friend  on  the 
appointed  day.  Had  I  been  born  with  a  better  fate, 
did  my  wheels  run  on  a  true  axle,  that  duty  of 
greeting  which  my  hand  now  performs  in  writing 
my  tongue  would  have  performed  ;  and  along  with 
pleasant  words  of  congratulation  I  should  give  you 
kisses,  nor  would  that  honour l  be  less  mine  than  yours. 
On  that  day,  I  confess,  I  should  be  so  proud  that 
scarce  any  house  would  contain  my  haughtiness 
While  the  throng  of  holy  senators  surrounded  you, 
I  as  a  knight  would  be  bidden  to  go  before  you,  and 

455 


OVID 

et  quamquam  cuperem  semper  tibi  proximus  esse, 
20      gauderem  lateris  non  habuis.se  locum, 
nee  querulus,  turba  quam  vis  eliderer,  essem  : 

sed  foret  a  populo  turn  mihi  dulce  premi. 
aspicerem  gaudens,  quantus  foret  agminis  ordo, 

densaque  quam  longum  turba  teneret  iter. 
25  quoque  magis  noris,  quam  me  vulgaria  tangant, 

spectarem,  qualis  purpura  te  tegeret. 
signa  quoque  in  sella  nossem  formata  curuli 

et  totum  Numidae  sculptile  dentis  opus, 
at  cum  Tarpeias  esses  deductus  in  arces, 
30      dum  caderet  iussu  victima  sacra  tuo, 

me  quoque  secreto  grates  sibi  magnus  agentem 

audisset  media  qui  sedet  aede  deus ; 
turaque  mente  rnagis  plena  quam  lance  dedisscm, 

ter  quater  imperii  laetus  honore  tui. 
35  hie  ego  praesentes  inter  numerarer  arnicos, 

mitia  ius  urbis ]  si  modo  fata  darent, 
quaeque  mihi  sola  capitur  nunc  mente  voluptas, 

tune  oculis  etiam  percipienda  foret. 
non  ita  caelitibus  visum  est,  et  forsitan  aequis  : 
40      nam  quid  me  poenae  causa  negata  in  vet  ? 
mente  tamen,  quae  sola  loco  non  exulat,  utar, 

praetextam  fasces  aspiciamque  tuos. 
liaec  modo  te  populo  reddentem  iura  videbit, 

et  se  secreto 2  finget  adesse  tuis  : 
4=5  nunc  longi  reditus  hastae  supponere  lustri 

credet,  et  exacta  cuncta  locare  fide  : 
nunc  facere  in  medio  facundum  verba  senatu, 

publica  quaerentem  quid  petat  utilitas  : 

1  verbis  vel  si  nobis  ius  corr.  Itali 
2  seoretis  corr&r/,  cf.  v.  31 

1  Sec  Ex  P.  iv.  5.  19  note. 
456 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  ix.  19-48 

though  I  should  be  very  eager  to  be  always  near  you, 
I  should  rejoice  to  have  no  place  at  your  side.  Nor 
should  I  complain,  though  I  were  bruised  by  the 
crowd  ;  at  such  time  'twere  pleasant  to  feel  the  crush 
of  the  populace.  I  should  behold  with  joy  the  long 
line  of  the  procession  and  the  dense  throng  on  its 
long  route.  And  that  you  may  know  how  trivial 
things  interest  me — 1  should  examine  the  texture  of 
your  mantling  purple.  I  should  inspect  even  the 
outline  of  the  figures  on  your  curule  chair — all  the 
carved  work  of  Nurnidian  ivory.  And  after  you  had 
been  escorted  to  the  Tarpeian  rock,  while  the  con- 
secrated victim  was  falling  at  your  command,  me 
also  as  I  rendered  him  thanks  in  secret  would  the 
mighty  god  have  heard  who  is  enthroned  in  the 
middle  of  the  temple.  I  would  have  offered  incense 
with  full  heart  rather  than  a  full  censer,  thrice  and 
four  times  rejoicing  in  your  sovereign  honour.  There 
should  1  be  counted  among  your  attending  friends  if 
only  kindly  fate  granted  me  of  right  to  be  present 
in  the  city,  and  the  pleasure  which  now  only  my 
mind  can  catch  would  then  be  wholly  grasped  by  my 
eyes  also. 

30  Not  so  have  the  gods  decided,  and  perhaps  they 
are  just.  For  how  can  the  denial  of  the  cause  of  my 
punishment  aid  me  ?  Yet  will  I  use  my  mind,  which 
alone  is  not  exiled,  to  behold  your  robe  and  fasces. 
This  shall  see  you  now  dispensing  justice  to  the 
people,  and  shall  fancy  itself  present  unseen  at  your 
actions  ;  now  it  shall  believe  that  you  are  bringing 
beneath  the  spear1  the  revenues  of  the  long  lustrum 
and  contracting  for  everything  \Nith  minute  good 
faith  ;  now  that  you  are  uttering  eloquent  words 
before  the  senate,  seeking  what  the  interest  of  the 

457 


OVID 

mine  pro  Caesaribus  superis  decernere  grates, 
60      albave  opimorum  colla  ferire  bourn. 

atque  utinam,  cum  iam  fueris  potiora  precatus, 

ut  mihi  placetur  principis  ira  roges  ! 
surgat  ad  hanc  vocem  plena  plus  ignis  ab  ara, 

detque  bonum  voto  lucidus  omen  apex. 
55  interea,  qua  parte  licet,  ne  cuncta  queramur, 

hie  quoque  te  festum  consule  tempus  agam. 
altera  laetitiae  est  nee  cedens  causa  priori, 

successor  tanti  frater  honoris  erit. 
nam  tibi  finitum  summo,  Graecine,  Decembri 
60      imperium  lani  suscipit  ille  die. 

quaeque  est  in  vobis  pietas,  alterna  feretis 

gaudia,  tu  fratris  fascibus,  ille  tuis. 
sic  tu  bis  fueris  consul,  bis  consul  et  ille, 

inque  domo  binus  conspicietur  honor. 
65  qui  quamquam  est  ingens,  et  nullum  Martia  summo 

altius  imperium  consule  Roma  videt, 
multiplicat  tamen  hunc  gravitas  auctoris  honorem, 

et  maiestatem  res  data  dantis  habet. 
iudiciis  igitur  liceat  Flaccoque  tibique 
70      talibus  Augusti  tempus  in  omne  frui. 

quod 1  tamen  ab  rerum  cura  propiore  vacabit, 

vota  precor  votis  addite  vestra  meis. 
et  si  quern  dabit  aura  sinum,  laxate  rudentes, 

exeat  e  Stygiis  ut  mea  navis  aquis. 
75  praefuit  his,  Graecine,  locis  modo  Flaccus,  et  illo 

ripa  ferox  Histri  sub  duce  tuta  fuit. 
hie  tenuit  Mysas  gentes  in  pace  fideli, 

hie  arcu  fisos  terruit  ense  Getas. 

1  quod]  cum  vel  ut 
458 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  ix.  49-78 

state  demands  ;  now  that  you  are  proposing  thanks 
on  behalf  of  the  godlike  Caesars,  or  smiting  for  them 
the  white  throats  of  choice  oxen.  Would  that,  when 
you  have  finished  your  prayer  for  more  important 
things,  you  might  ask  on  my  behalf  the  assuage- 
ment of  an  emperor's  wrath  !  At  your  words  may 
the  holy  fire  spring  up  from  the  full  altar  and  a  bright 
tongue  of  flame  offer  a  good  omen  for  the  prayer. 

55  Meanwhile  so  far  as  I  may — let  me  not  complain 
of  everything — even  here  I  will  have  a  festival  for 
your  consulship.  There  is  a  second  cause  for  joy 
that  yields  not  to  the  first ;  your  brother  will  follow 
you  in  so  great  an  honour.  For  the  power  which  is 
ended  for  you  with  late  December  he  assumes  on 
Janus's  day.1  Such  is  the  affection  of  you  twain  that 
you  will  receive  mutual  joy,  you  in  his  office  and  he 
in  yours.  Thus  you  will  be  twice  consul,  he  twice 
consul ;  a  double  honour  will  be  seen  in  your  house- 
hold. 

65  Though  mighty  the  honour  and  Martian  Rome 
sees  no  loftier  power  than  that  of  the  supreme  consul, 
yet  it  is  multiplied  by  the  dignity  of  its  sponsor  and  the 
gift  possesses  all  the  majesty  of  the  giver.  There- 
fore may  it  be  your  lot  and  that  of  Flaccus  to  enjoy 
for  all  time  such  verdicts  of  Augustus.  But  in  his 
leisure  from  the  more  pressing  cares  of  state  add  both 
your  prayers,  I  beseech  you,  to  mine,  and  if  the  breeze 
shall  belly  any  sail,  loosen  the  cables  that  my  bark 
may  set  forth  from  the  Stygian  waters.  The  com- 
mander of  this  region,  Graecinus,  was  till  recently 
Flaccus,  under  whose  charge  the  turbulent  banks  of 
the  Hister  were  safe.  He  held  the  Mysian  tribes  to 
loyal  peace,  he  cowed  with  his  sword  the  Getae  who 
1  January  1st. 

459 


OVID 

hie  rap  tarn  Troesmin 1  celeri  virtute  recepit, 
80      infecitque  fero  sanguine  Danuvium. 

quaere  loci  faciem  Scythicique  incommoda  caeli, 

et  quam  vicino  terrear  hoste  roga  : 
sintne  litae  tenues  serpentis  felle  sagittae, 

fiat  an  humanum  victima  dira  caput : 
85  mentiar,  an  coeat  duratus  frigore  Pontus, 

et  teneat  glacies  iugera  multa  freti. 
haec  ubi  narrarit,  quae  sit  mea  fama  require, 

quoque  modo  peragam  tempora  dura  roga. 
nee  sumus  hie  odio,  nee  scilicet  esse  meremur, 
90      nee  cum  fortuna  mens  quoque  versa  mea  est. 
ilia  quies  animi,  quam  tu  laudare  solebas, 

ille  vetus  soli  to  perstat  in  ore  pudor. 
sic  ego  sum  longe,  sic  hie,  ubi  barbarus  hostis, 

ut  fera  plus  valeant  legibus  arma,  facit, 
95  rem  queat  ut  nullam  tot  iam,  Graecine,  per  annos 

femina  de  nobis  virve  puerve  queri. 
hoc  facit  ut  misero  faveant  adsintque  Tomitae  : 

haec  quoniam  tellus  testificanda  mihi  est. 
illi  me,  quia  velle  vident,  discedere  malunt : 
100      respectu  cupiunt  hie  tamen  esse  sui. 

nee  mihi  credideris  :  extant  decreta,  quibus  nos 

laudat  et  inmunes  publica  cera  facit. 
conveniens  miseris  et  quamquam  gloria  non  est,2 

proxima  dant  nobis  oppida  munus  idem. 
105  nee  pietas  ignota  mea  est :  videt  hospita  terra 

in  nostra  sacrum  Caesaris  esse  domo. 
stant  pariter  natusque  pius  coniunxque  sacerdos, 

numina  iam  facto  non  leviora  deo. 

1  troesenen  etc.  corr.  Korn  2  sit 

460 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  ix.  79-108 

trust  in  the  bow.  He  recovered  with  swift  valour 
captured  Troesmis,  dyeing  the  Danube  with  barbarian 
blood.  Question  him  about  the  face  of  this  land,  the 
rigours  of  the  Scythian  climate ;  ask  him  about  the 
terror  that  I  suffer  from  the  foe  so  close  at  hand — 
whether  the  slender  arrows  are  dipped  in  serpent's 
gall,  whether  the  human  head  becomes  a  hideous 
offering  ;  whether  I  am  a  liar  or  the  Pontus  does 
indeed  freeze  with  the  cold  and  ice  covers  many 
acres  of  the  sea.  When  he  has  told  you  these  things, 
then  ask  in  what  repute  I  am,  how  I  pass  my  hours  of 
suffering.  Here  I  am  not  hated,  and  indeed  I  do 
not  deserve  to  be,  and  my  mind  has  not  changed 
along  with  my  fate.  That  tranquillity  which  you 
were  wont  to  praise,  that  wonted  modesty  still  abides 
as  of  old  upon  my  countenance.  Such  is  my  bearing 
in  this  far  land,  where  the  barbarian  foe  causes  cruel 
arms  to  have  more  power  than  law,  that  'tis  impossible 
now  these  many  years,  Graecinus,  for  woman  or  man 
or  child  to  make  complaint  of  me.  This  it  is  which 
brings  me  the  kindly  attentions  of  the  Tomitae  in  my 
wretchedness — since  this  land  I  must  needs  call  as 
witness.  Because  they  see  that  it  is  my  wish  they 
would  like  to  have  me  depart ;  yet  for  their  own  sake 
are  eager  to  have  me  remain.  And  trust  not  me  for 
this  :  there  are  extant  upon  the  wax  decrees  praising 
me  and  granting  me  immunity.1  And  though  'tis 
not  fitting  for  the  unfortunate  to  boast,  the  neigh- 
bouring towns  grant  me  the  same  favour.  Nor  is 
my  piety  unknown  :  a  strange  land  sees  a  shrine  to 
Caesar  in  my  house.  Beside  him  stand  the  pious  son 
and  priestess  wife,2  deities  not  less  important  than 
himself  now  that  he  has  become  a  god.  To  make  the 
1  i.e.  from  taxes.  2  Tiberius  and  Livia. 

461 


OVID 

neu  desit  pars  ulla  domus,  stat  uterque  nepotum, 
110      hie  aviae  lateri  proximus,  ille  patris. 

his  ego  do  totiens  cum  ture  precantia  verba, 

Eoo  quotiens  surgit  ab  orbe  dies, 
tota,  licet  quaeras,  hoc  me  non  fingere  dicet 

officii  testis  Pontica  terra  mei. 
115  Pontica  me  tellus,  quantis  hac  possumus  ara,1 

natalem  ludis  scit  celebrare  dei. 
nee  minus  hospitibus  pietas  est  cognita  talis, 

misit  in  has  siquos  longa  Propontis  aquas, 
is  quoque,  quo  laevus  2  fuerat  sub  praeside  Pontus, 
120      audierit  frater  forsitan  ista  tuus. 

fortuna  est  impar  ammo,  talique  libenter 

exiguas  carpo  munere  pauper  opes, 
nee  vestris  damus  haec  oculis,  procul  urbe  remoti : 

contenti  tacita  sed  pietate  sumus. 
125  et  tamcn  haec  tangent  aliquando  Caesaris  aures : 

nil  illi,  toto  quod  fit  in  orbe,  latet. 
tu  certe  scis  haec,3  superis  ascite,  videsque, 

Caesar,  ut  est  oculis  subdita  terra  tins, 
tu  nostras  audis  inter  convexa  locatus 
130      sidera,  sollicito  quas  damus  ore,  preces. 
perveniant  istuc  et  carmina  forsitan  ilia, 

quae  de  te  misi  caelite  facta  novo. 
auguror  his  igitur  flecti  tua  numina,  nee  tu 

inmerito  nomen  mite  Parentis  habes. 

X. 

Haec  mihi  Cimmerio  bis  tertia  ducitur  aestas 
litore  pellitos  inter  agenda  Getas. 

1  ora  2  laetus  a  hoc 

1  Germanicus  and  Drusus.  2  Tiberius. 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  ix.  109— x.  2 

household  group  complete,  both  of  the  grandsons  l 
are  there,  one  by  the  side  of  his  grandmother,  the 
other  by  that  of  his  father.  To  these  I  offer  incense 
and  words  of  prayer  as  often  as  the  day  rises  from  the 
east.  The  whole  land  of  Pontus — you  are  free  to 
inquire — will  say  that  I  am  not  fabricating  this  and 
will  bear  witness  to  my  devotion.  The  land  of  Pontus 
knows  that  on  this  altar  I  celebrate  with  what 
festivals  I  can  the  birthday  of  the  god,  nor  is  such 
service  less  known  to  whatsoever  strangers  the 
distant  Propontis  sends  to  these  waters.  Even  your 
brother,  who  had  charge  of  ill-omened  Pontus,  may 
perhaps  have  heard  of  it.  My  means  are  unequal 
to  my  wishes,  but  in  such  service  gladly,  though  poor, 
do  I  expend  my  scant  resources.  Nor  do  I  bring  all 
these  things  before  your  eyes,  far  removed  as  I 
am  from  the  city,  but  I  am  content  with  an  un- 
spoken loyalty,  and  nevertheless  this  shall  sometime 
reach  the  ear  of  Caesar  2  from  whom  nothing  which 
occurs  in  the  whole  world  is  hidden.  Thou  at  least 
knowest  this,  O  Caesar,  now  one  with  the  gods,  and 
seest  it,  since  now  the  world  is  placed  beneath  thine 
eyes.  Thou  nearest  from  thy  place  among  the  stars 
of  heaven's  vault  the  prayers  of  my  anxious  lips. 
Perchance  even  those  poems  may  reach  thee  there 
which  I  have  composed  and  sent  about  thee,  a  new 
divinity.  And  so  1  prophesy  that  thy  holy  will  is 
yielding  to  these  prayers,  for  not  undeservedly  hast 
thou  the  gracious  name  of  "  Father." 

X.  To  ALBINOVANUS 

Now  is  the  sixth  summer  wearing  away  which  I 
must  pass  on  the  Cimmerian  shore  among  the  skin- 


OVID 

ecquos  tu  silices,  ecquod,  carissime,  ferrum 

duritiae  confers,  Albinovane,  meae  ? 
5  gutta  cavat  lapidem,  consumitur  anulus  usu, 

atteritur1  pressa  vomer  aduncus  humo. 
tempus  edax  igitur  praeter  nos  omnia  pcrdit : 

cessat  duritia  mors  quoque  victa  mea. 
cxeinplum  est  animi  nimium  patientis  Ulixes, 
10      iactatus  dubio  per  duo  lustra  mari  : 
tempora  solliciti  sed  non  tamen  omnia  fati 

pertulit,  et  placidae  saepe  fuere  morae. 
an  grave  sex  annis  pulchram  fovisse  Calypso 

aequoreaeque  fuit  concubuisse  deae  ? 
15  excipit  Hippotades,  qui  dat  pro  munere  ventos, 

curvet  ut  inpulsos  utilis  aura  sinus, 
nee  bene  cantantes  labor  est  audire  puellas  : 

nee  degustanti  lotos  amara  fuit. 
lios  ego,  qui  patriae  faciant  oblivia,  sucos 
20      parte  meae  vitae,  si  modo  dentur,  eniam. 
nee  tu  contuleris  urbem  Laestrygonos  umquam 

gentibus,  obliqua  quas  obit  Hister  aqua, 
nee  vincet  Cyclops  saevum  feritatc  Piaeehen. 

qui  quota  terror  is  pars  solet  esse  mei  ! 
25  Scylla  feris  trunco  quod  latret  ab  inguinc  monstris, 

Heniochae  nautis  plus  nocuere  rates, 
nee  potes  infestis  conferre  Chary bdin  Achaeis, 

ter  licet  epotum  ter  vomat  ilia  fretum. 
qui  quamquani  dextra  regionc  licentius  errant* 
30      securum  latus  hoe  non  lam  en  esse  sinunt. 
hie  agri  infrondes,  hie  spieula  tincta  veneriis, 

liic  freta  vel  pediti  pervia  reddit  hi  ems, 

1  et  teritur  corr.  Heinftius 

1  A  lustrum  was  five  years. 

2  Aeolus.  a  The  Sirens. 

4-64- 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  x.  3-32 

clad  Getae.  Can  you  compare  any  flint,  Albinovanus, 
any  iron  to  my  endurance  ?  Drops  of  water  hollow 
out  a  stone,  a  ring  is  worn  thin  by  use,  the  hooked 
plough  is  rubbed  away  by  the  soil's  pressure.  So 
devouring  time  destroys  all  things  but  me  :  even 
death  keeps  aloof  defeated  by  my  endurance.  The 
type  of  a  heart  suffering  to  excess  is  Ulysses,  who  was 
tossed  for  two  lustra1  on  the  perilous  sea.  Yet  not 
all  his  hours  were  hours  of  troubled  fate,  for  oft  came 
intervals  of  peace.  Or  was  it  a  hardship  to  fondle 
for  six  years  the  fair  Calypso  and  share  the  couch  of  a 
goddess  of  the  sea  ?  Hippotes'  son  2  harboured  him 
and  gave  him  the  winds,  that  a  favouring  breeze 
might  fill  and  drive  his  sails.  And  'tis  not  a  sorrow  to 
hear  maidens3  singing  beautifully,  nor  was  the  lotos 
bitter  to  one  who  tasted  it.  Such  juices,  which 
cause  forgetfulness  of  one's  native  land,  I  would 
purchase,  if  only  they  were  offered,  at  the  price  of  half 
my  life.  Nor  could  you  compare  the  city  of  the 
Laestrygonian  with  the  tribes  which  the  Hister 
touches  in  its  winding  course.  Cyclops  will  not 
surpass  in  cruelty  Piacches — and  what  mere  fraction 
of  my  dread  is  he  wont  to  be  !  Though  Scylla's 
misshapen  loins  may  send  forth  the  barkings  of  cruel 
monsters,  the  Heniochian  ships  have  done  more  harm 
to  mariners.  You  cannot  compare  Charybdis,  though 
she  thrice  drinks  in,  thrice  spews  forth  the  flood, 
with  the  hostile  Achaei  who  though  they  roam  with 
larger  licence  in  the  eastern  lands,  yet  allow  not 
this  shore  to  be  safe.  Here  there  are  lands  without 
a  leaf,  here  are  darts  dyed  in  poison,  here  the  winter 
makes  even  the  sea  a  highway  for  one  on  foot,  so 


OVID 

ut,  qua  remus  iter  pulsis  modo  fecerat  undis, 

siccus  contempta  nave  viator  eat. 
35  qui  veniunt  istinc,  vix  vos  ea  credere  dicunt. 

quam  miser  est,  qui  fert  asperiora  fide  ! 
crede  tamen  :  nee  te  causas  nescire  sinemus, 
horrida  Sarmaticum  cur  mare  duret  hiems. 
proxima  sunt  nobis  plaustri  praebentia  formam 
40      et  quae  praecipuum  sidera  frigus  habent. 
hinc  oritur  Boreas  oraeque  domesticus  huic  est 

et  sumit  vires  a  propiore  loco, 
at  Notus,  adverso  tepidum  qui  spirat  ab  axe, 

est  procul  et  rarus  languidiorque  venit. 
45  adde  quod  hie  clauso  miseentur  flumina  Ponto, 
vimque  fretum  rnulto  perdit  ab  amne  suam. 
hue  Lycus,  hue  Sagaris  Peniusque  Hypanisque  Cales- 

que 

influit  et  crebro  vertice  tortus  Halys, 
Partheniusque  rapax,  et  volvens  saxa  Cynapses 
50      labitur,  et  nullo  tardior  amne  Tyras, 
et  tu,  femineae  Thennodon  cognite  turmae, 

et  quondam  Gratis  Phasi  petite  viris, 
cumque  Borysthenio  liquidissimus  amne  Dyrapses 

et  tacite  peragens  lene  Melanthus  iter, 
55  quique  duas  terras,  Asiam  Cadmique  sororem, 

separat  et  cursus  inter  utramque  facit,1 
innumerique  alii,  quos  inter  maximus  omnes 

cedere  Danuvius  se  tibi,  Nile,  negat. 
copia  tot  laticum,  quas  auget,  adulterat  undas, 
60      nee  patitur  vires  aequor  habere  suas. 
quin  etiam,  stagno  similis  pigraeque  paludi, 
caeruleus  vix  est  diluiturque  color. 

1  vv.  55-56  fortassf  spurii 
1  Probably  the  Dun.  2  Europa. 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  x.  33-62 

that  where  the  oar  had  but  just  now  beaten  a  way 
through  the  waves,  the  traveller  proceeds  dry  shod, 
despising  boats. 

35  Those  who  come  from  your  land  report  that  you 
scarce  believe  all  this.  How  wretched  is  he  who 
endures  what  is  too  harsh  for  credence  !  Yet  believe 
you  must,  nor  shall  I  permit  you  to  remain  in  ignor- 
ance of  the  reason  why  dread  winter  freezes  the 
Sarmatian  sea.  Very  near  us  are  the  stars  having 
the  form  of  a  wain,  possessing  extreme  cold.  Here 
is  the  source  of  Boreas  ;  this  coast  is  his  home,  and 
he  takes  on  strength  from  a  place  nearer  to  him. 
On  the  other  hand  Notus,  whose  breath  comes  warm 
from  the  opposite  pole,  is  far  away  ;  he  comes  but 
rarely  and  without  energy.  Moreover,  here  the 
rivers  mingle  in  the  landlocked  Pontus,  and  the  sea 
loses  its  own  power  because  of  many  a  stream.  Here 
the  Lycus,  here  the  Sagaris,  the  Penius,  the  Hypanis, 
the  Cales  flow  in  and  the  Halys  twisting  in  many  an 
eddy,  the  destroying  Parthenius,  and  the  Cynapses 
glides  along  tumbling  his  boulders,  and  the  Tyras 
inferior  to  no  stream  in  swiftness,  and  thou,  Ther- 
modon,  familiar  to  the  bands  of  women,  and  thou, 
Phasis,  sought  by  Grecian  heroes,  and  with  the  Borys- 
thenes  the  clear  Dyrapses,  and  the  Melanthus, 
quietly  completing  his  gentle  course,  and  the  river  l 
which  separates  two  lands,  Asia  and  Cadmus's 
sister,2  making  its  way  between  them,  and  countless 
others  of  which  mightiest  of  all  the  Danube  refuses, 
O  Nile,  to  yield  to  thee.  The  wealth  of  so  many 
waters  corrupts  the  waves  which  it  augments,  not 
allowing  the  sea  to  keep  its  own  strength.  Nay,  like 
to  a  still  pool  or  a  stagnant  swamp  its  colour  is  scarce 
blue  and  is  washed  away.  The  fresh  water  floats 

467 


UV1U 

innatat  unda  freto  dulcis,  leviorque  marina  est, 

quae  proprium  mixto  de  sale  pondus  liabet. 
65  si  roget  haec  aliquis  cur  sint  narrata  Pedoni, 

quidve  loqui  certis  iuverit  ista  modis, 
"  detinui  "  dicam  "  curas  tempusque  fefelli. 

hunc  fruclum  praesens  attulit  hora  mihi. 
afuimus  solito,  dum  scribirnus  ista,  dolore, 
70     in  mediis  nee  nos  sensimus  esse  Getis." 
at  tu,  non  dubito,  cum  Thesea  carmine  laudes, 

materiae  titulos  quin  tueare  tuae, 
quemque  refers,  imitere  virum.     vetat  ille  profecto 

tranquilli  comitem  temporis  esse  fidem. 
75  qui  quamquam  est  factis  ingens  et  conditur  a  te 

vir  tan  to  quanto  debuit  ore  cani, 
est  tamen  ex  illo  nobis  imitabile  quiddam, 

inque  fide  Theseus  quilibet  esse  potest. 
non  tibi  sunt  hostes  ferro  clavaque  domandi, 
80      per  quos  vix  ulli  pervius  Isthmos  erat  : 

sed  praestandus  amor,  res  non  operosa  volenti. 

quis  labor  est  puram  non  temerasse  fidem  ? 
haec  tibi,  qui  perstas l  indeclinatus  amico, 

non  est  quod  lingua  dicta  querente  putes. 


XL 

Gallio,  crimen  erit  vix  excusabile  nobis, 

carmine  te  nomen  non  habuisse  meo. 
tu  quoque  enim,  memini,  caelesti  cuspide  facta 

fovisti  lacrimis  vulnera  nostra  tuis. 

1  praestas 

1  The  robbers  on  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth  whom  Theseus 
subdued. 
468 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  x.  63— xi.  4 

ipon  the  flood,  being  lighter  than  the  sea-water 
ivhich  possesses  weight  of  its  own  from  the  mixture 
rf  salt. 

65  If  somebody  ask  why  I  have  told  all  this  to  Pedo, 
what  profit  there  has  been  in  speaking  so  precisely, 
[  would  say,  "  I  have  given  pause  to  my  cares  and 
beguiled  the  time  ;  this  is  the  profit  the  present  hour 
las  brought  me.  I  have  gained  release  in  writing 
this  from  my  accustomed  grief  and  have  lost  the 
feeling  that  I  am  among  the  Getae." 

71  But  you,  I  doubt  not,  since  you  are  singing  in 
/erse  the  praises  of  Theseus,  are  doing  honour  to  the 
subject  and  imitating  the  hero  whom  you  describe. 
Surely  he  forbids  fidelity  to  be  the  companion  only 
rf  happy  moments.  His  deeds  are  great  and  he  is 
lescribed  by  you  in  a  vein  grand  enough  for  a  hero, 
yet  there  is  one  thing  in  him  that  we  can  imitate  :  in 
fidelity  anybody  can  be  a  Theseus.  You  do  not  have 
to  subdue  with  sword  and  club  the  foe  1  who  rendered 
the  Isthmos  scarce  passable  for  anyone,  but  you  must 
make  good  your  love,  a  thing  not  hard  for  one  who 
lias  the  wish.  What  trouble  is  it  to  refrain  from 
outraging  unblemished  fidelity  ?  You,  who  stand 
unswervingly  by  your  friend,  must  not  think  that 
these  words  have  been  uttered  by  a  complaining 
tongue. 


XI.  To  GALLIC 

Gallio,  it  will  be  a  sin  which  I  can  scarce  palliate 
f  your  name  proves  not  to  have  found  a  place  in  my 
ferse.  For  you  too,  I  remember,  when  I  was  smitten 
Dythe  divine  spear,  bathed  my  wounds  with  your  tears. 

469 


OVID 

5  atque  utinam  rapti  iactura  laesus  amici 
sensisses  ultra,  quod  querererc,  nihil  ! 
non  ita  dis  placuit,  qui  te  spoliare  pudica 

coniuge  crudeles  non  habuere  nefas. 
nuntia  nam  luctus  mihi  nuper  epistula  venit, 
10      lectaque  cum  lacrimis  sunt  tua  damna  meis. 
sed  neque  solari  prudentem  stultior  ausim, 

verbaque  doctorum  nota  referre  tibi  : 
finitumque  tuum,  si  non  ratione,  dolorem 

ipsa  iam  pridem  suspicor  esse  mora. 
15  dum  tua  pervenit,  dum  littera  nostra  rccurrcns 

tot  maria  ac  terras  permeat,  annus  abit. 
temporis  officium  est  solacia  dicere  certi, 

dum  dolor  in  cursu  est  et  petit  aeger  opem. 
at  cum  longa  dies  sedavit  vulnera  mentis, 
20      intempestive  qui  mo  vet l  ilia,  no  vat. 

adde  quod  (atque  utinam  verum  tibi  venerit  omen  !) 
coniugio  felix  iam  potes  esse  novo. 

XII. 

Quo  minus  in  nostris  ponaris,  amice,  libellis, 

nominis  efficitur  condioione  tin. 
ast  ego  non  alium  prius  hoc  dignarer  honore — 

est  aliquis  nostrum  si  modo  carmen  honor. 
5  lex  pedis  officio  fortunaquc  nominis  obstat, 

quaquc  meos  adeas  est  via  nulla  modos. 
nam  pudet  in  geminos  ita  nomen  scindere  versus, 

desinat  ut  prior  hoc  incipiatque  minor. 

1  monet 

1  Tuticanus  can  be  got  into  elegiac  verse  in  four  ways,  all 
violent:   (1)  by  dividing  the  name  between  two  lines;  by 
scanning  (2)  Tutieanus  or  (3)  Tiitiodnua  or  (4>)  Tiltlcdnus. 
470 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  xi.  5— xii.  8 

And  would  that  injured  by  the  loss  of  your  ravished 
friend  you  had  felt  no  further  blow  to  stir  lament. 
Not  so  has  it  pleased  the  gods,  for  in  their  cruelty 
they  have  not  thought  it  wrong  to  despoil  you  of  your 
pure  wife.  I  have  but  just  received  a  letter  which 
told  me  your  sorrow,  and  I  read  of  your  loss  with 
tears.  But  I  should  not  venture  in  folly  to  console 
one  who  is  wiser  than  I,  to  repeat  to  you  the  familiar 
words  of  the  wise  men  ;  your  grief  has  been  for  some 
time  ended,  I  suppose,  if  not  by  reasoning,  then  by 
the  lapse  of  time.  While  your  letter  has  been  on  its 
way,  while  mine  in  answer  is  traversing  so  many  lands 
and  seas,  a  year  has  passed.  The  service  of  consola- 
tion belongs  to  a  definite  period  while  grief  is  still  in 
progress  and  the  stricken  one  is  seeking  aid.  But 
after  long  time  has  quieted  the  soul's  wounds,  he 
who  touches  them  out  of  season,  only  reopens  them. 
Moreover — and  may  this  omen  be  true  when  it 
reaches  you  ! — you  may  already  be  happy  through  a 
new  marriage. 


XII.  To  TUTICANUS 

The  bar,  my  friend,  that  prevents  your  finding  a 
place  in  my  verse,  is  set  up  by  the  nature  of  your 
name.  For  my  part  I  should  deem  no  other  more 
worthy  of  the  honour — if  only  my  verse  involves  any 
honour.  'Tis  my  metre's  law  and  your  unfortunate 
name  that  oppose  the  compliment,  and  there  is  no 
method  by  which  you  can  enter  my  rhythm.  For  I 
should  be  ashamed  to  separate  your  name  between 
two  lines,1  ending  the  first  with  a  part  and  beginning 
the  second  with  another  part,  and  I  should  be  equally 


OVID 

et  pudeat,  si  te,  qua  syllaba  parte  moratur, 
10      artius  adpellem  Tuticanumque  vocem. 
nee l  potes  in  versum  Tuticani  more  venire, 

fiat  ut  e  longa  syllaba  prima  brevis, 
aut  producatur,2  quae  nunc  correptius  exit, 

et  sit  porrecta  longa  secunda  mora. 
15  his  ego  si  vitiis  ausim  corrumpere  nomen, 

ridear  et  merito  pectus  habere  neger. 
haec  mihi  causa  fuit  dilati  muneris  huius, 

quod  meus  adiecto  faenore  reddet 3  amor, 
teque  canam  quacumque  nota,  tibi  carmina  mittam, 
20      paene  mihi  puero  cognite  paene  puer, 

perque  tot  annorum  seriem,  quot  habemus  uterque, 

non  mihi,  quam  fratri  frater,  amate  minus, 
tu  bonus  hortator,  tu  duxque  comesque  fuisti, 

cum  regerem  tenera  frena  novella  manu. 
25  saepe  ego  correxi  sub  te  censore  libellos, 

saepe  tibi  admonitu  facta  litura  meo  est, 
dignarn  Maeoniis  Phaeacida  condere  chartis 

cum  te  Pieriae  perdocuere  deae. 
hie  tenor,  haec  viridi  concordia  coepta  iuventa 
30      venit  ad  albentis  inlabefacta  comas. 

quae  nisi  te  moveant,  duro  tibi  pectora  ferro 

esse  vel  invicto  clausa  adamante  putem. 
sed  prius  huic  desint  et  bellum  et  frigora  terrae, 

invisus  nobis  quae  duo  Pontus  habet, 
35  et  tepidus  Boreas  et  sit  praefrigidus  Auster, 

et  possit  fatum  mollius  esse  meum, 
quam  tua  sint  lasso4  praecordia  dura  sodali. 
hie  cumulus  nostris  absit  abestque  mails. 

1  nee]  et  vel  non  corr.  <r 
2  ut  ducatur  8  reddit  4  lapso 

1  Similarly  Horace  alludes  to  a  town  whose  name  resisted 
metre  (Sat.  i.  5.  87),  Lucilius  to  a  festival  (228  f.  Marx),  and 

472 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  xn.  9-38 

ishamed  if,  where  a  syllable  is  long,  I  should  shorten 
t  and  address  you  as  Tuticanus.  Nor  can  you  enter 
nto  the  verse  as  Tuticanus,  so  that  the  first  long 
iyllable  is  shortened  ;  or  so  that  the  second  syllable, 
vhich  is  now  short,  should  be  long  by  extending 
ts  time,  If  by  such  faults  as  these  I  should  venture 
,o  distort  your  name,  I  should  be  laughed  at  and 
;hey  would  say  rightly  that  I  had  no  taste.1 

17  This  was  my  reason  for  putting  off  this  service,  but 
ny  love  shall  render  it  with  added  interest,  and  I 
will  sing  of  you  under  some  symbol  or  other  ;  I  will 
send  you  verses — you  whom  I  knew  when  we  were 
ilmost  boys,  whom  through  the  succession  of  all  the 
pears  of  our  lives  I  have  loved  no  less  dearly  than  a 
3rother.  You  gave  me  kindly  encouragement,  you 
were  my  guide  and  comrade,  whilst  with  youthful 
hand  I  was  guiding  the  novel  reins.  Often  I  revised 
my  work  in  deference  to  your  criticism,  often  on  your 
advice  I  made  erasures,  while  you  the  Pierian  god- 
desses taught  to  compose  a  Phaeacis  2  worthy  of  the 
Maeonian  pages.  This  constancy,  this  harmony  of 
tastes  begun  in  the  green  of  youth,  has  continued 
unweakened  to  the  time  when  our  hair  is  white. 
If  this  should  not  affect  you,  I  should  believe  that 
you  had  a  heart  encased  in  iron  or  unconquerable 
adamant.  But  sooner  would  this  land  lack  war  and 
cold — the  two  things  which  hated  Pontus  holds  for 
me — sooner  would  Boreas  become  warm  and  Auster 
chilly,  and  my  fate  less  harsh,  than  would  your  heart 
be  hard  to  your  weary  friend  Let  this  final  blow 
be  absent — and  it  is  absent — from  my  woes. 

Critias  had  trouble  with  "  Alcibiades,"  c/.  Bergk-Hiller- 
Crusius,  Anthol.  lyr.  fr.  5,  p.  136. 

8  An  epic  on  the  sojourn  of  Ulysses  in  Phaeacia. 

4,73 


OVID 

tu  modo  per  superos,  quorum  certissimus  ille  est, 
40      quo  tuus  assidue  principe  crevit  honor, 
effice  constant!  profugum  pietate  tuendo, 

ne  sperata  meam  deserat  aura  ratem. 
quid  mandem,  quaeris  ?  peream,  nisi  dicere  vix  est ; 

si  modo,  qui  periit,  ille  perire  potest. 
45  nee  quid  agam  invenio,  nee  quid  nolimve  velimve, 

nee  satis  utilitas  est  mihi  nota  mea. 
crede  mihi,  miseros  prudentia  prima  relinquit, 

et  sensus  cum  re  consiliumque  fugit. 
ipse,  precor,  quaeras,  qua  sim  tibi  parte  iuvandus, 
50      quoque  viam  facias  ad  mea  vota  vado. 

XIII. 

O  mihi  non  dubios  inter  memorande  sodales, 

qui  quod  es,  id  vere,  Care,  vocaris,  ave  ! 
unde  saluteris,  color  hie  tibi  protinus  index 

et  structura  mei  carminis  esse  potest. 
5  non  quia  mirifica  est,  sed  quod  non  publica  certe  est  i 

qualis  enim  cumque  est,  non  latet  esse  meam. 
ipse  quoque,  ut  titulum  chartae  de  fronte  revellas, 

quod  sit  opus,  videor  dicere  posse,  tuum. 
quamlibet  in  multis  positus  noscere  libellis, 
10      perque  observatas  inveniere  notas. 

prodent  auctorem  vires,  quas  Hercule  dignas 

novimus  atque  illi,  quern  canis  ipse,1  pares. 

et  mea  Musa  potest,  proprio  deprensa  colore, 

insignis  vitiis  forsitan  esse  suis. 
16  tarn  mala  Thersiten  prohibebat  forrna  latere, 
quam  pulchra  Nireus  conspiciendus  erat. 
1  ipse]  esse 

1  Carus>  "  dear."  " 

2  As  Thersites   was  the   ugliest,   so   Nireus   was   (after 
Achilles)  the  most  beautiful  man  in  the  Greek  host  at  Troy. 
474 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  xii.  39— xin.  16 

39  Only  do  you — by  the  gods  of  whom  He  is  most 
trustworthy  under  whose  lead  your  honour  has  steadily 
increased — see  to  it  by  watching  over  an  exile  with 
steadfast  devotion  that  the  breeze  of  hope  does  not 
forsake  my  bark.  What  are  my  directions,  you  ask  ? 
May  I  die  if  it  is  not  hard  to  say — if  only  he  who  is 
already  dead  can  die.  I  find  nothing  to  do  or  to 
wish  or  not  wish,  nor  do  I  quite  know  what  is  to  my 
advantage.  Believe  me,  foresight  is  the  first  thing 
to  abandon  the  wretched,  and  along  with  fortune 
sense  and  reason  flee.  Seek  in  person,  I  beg  you, 
how  you  ought  to  aid  me,  and  over  what  shallows  you 
may  construct  a  way  to  accomplish  my  wishes. 

XIII.  To  CARUS 

To  you  who  must  be  counted  among  my  undoubted 
friends — to  you  who  arc  in  very  truth  what  you 
are  called,  Carus,1 — greetings  !  Whence  comes  this 
salutation,  the  tone  of  this  letter  and  the  structure  of 
the  verse  can  tell  you,  riot  that  it  is  excellent,  but 
'tis  at  least  not  commonplace  ;  for  whatever  be  its 
merit,  'tis  clear  to  see  that  it  is  mine.  I,  too,  though 
you  should  tear  the  title  from  the  head  of  your  pages, 
could  tell,  I  think,  what  work  is  yours.  No  matter 
how  many  the  books  among  which  you  may  be  placed 
you  will  be  recognized,  discovered  by  signs  I  have 
observed.  The  author  will  be  betrayed  by  the  vigour 
which  we  know  to  be  worthy  of  Hercules  and  suited 
to  him  of  whom  you  yourself  sing.  My  Muse  too, 
detected  by  her  own  complexion,  can  perhaps  be 
distinguished  by  her  very  blemishes.  Ugliness  pre- 
vented Thersites  from  escaping  notice  as  much  as 
beauty  made  Nireus  conspicuous.2 

475 


OVID 

nee  te  mirari,  si  sint  vitiosa,  decebit 

carmina,  quae  faciam  paene  poeta  Getes. 
a !  pudet,  et  Getico  scrips!  sermone  libellum, 
20      structaque  sunt  nostris  barbara  vcrba  modis  : 
et  placui  (gratare  mihi)  coepique  poetae 

inter  inhumanos  nomen  habere  Getas. 
materiam  quaeris  ?  laudes  :  de  Caesare  dixi. 

adiuta  est  novitas  numine  nostra  dei. 
25  nam  patris  August!  docui  mortale  fuisse 

corpus,  in  aetherias  numen  abisse  domos  : 
esse  parem  virtute  patri,  qui  frena  rogatus 

saepe  recusati  ceperit  imperii  : 
esse  pudicarum  te  Vestam,  Li  via,  rnatrum, 
30      ambiguum  nato  dignior  anne  viro  : 

esse  duos  iuvenes,  firm  a  adiumenta  parcntis, 

qui  dederint  animi  pignora  certa  sui. 
haec  ubi  non  patria  perlegi  scripta  Cainena, 

venit  et  ad  digitos  ultima  charta  meos, 
35  et  caput  et  plenas  omncs  movere  pharetras, 

et  longurn  Getico  murmur  in  ore  fiat, 
atque  aliquis  "  scribas  haec  cum  de  Caesare,"  dixit 

"  Caesaris  imperio  restituendus  eras." 
ille  quidem  dixit  :   sed  me  iam,  Care,  nivali 
40      sexta  relegatum  bruma  sub  axe  videt. 

carmina  nil  prosunt.     nocuerunt  carmina  quondam, 

primaque  tarn  miserae  causa  fuere  fugae. 
at  tu,  per  studii  communia  foedera  sacri, 

per  non  vile  tibi  nomen  amicitiae 
45  (sic  cap  to  Latiis  Germanicus  hoste  catenis 

materiam  vestris  adferat  ingeniis  : 

1  Tiberius. 

2  Drusus,   the   son,   arid   Germanicus,   the   nephew  and 
adopted  son,  of  Tiberius. 

476 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  xin.  17-46 

17  Nor  should  you  wonder  if  my  verse  prove  faulty, 
for  I  am  almost  a  Getic  poet.  Ah  !  it  brings  me 
shame  !  I  have  even  written  a  poem  in  the  Getic 
tongue,  setting  barbarian  words  to  our  measures  :  I 
even  found  favour — congratulate  me  ! — and  began  to 
achieve  among  the  uncivilized  Getae  the  name  of 
poet.  You  ask  my  theme  ?  you  would  praise  it :  I 
sang  of  Caesar.  My  novel  attempt  was  aided  by 
the  god's  will.  For  I  told  how  the  body  of  father 
Augustus  was  mortal,  but  his  spirit  had  passed  to  the 
abodes  of  heaven  ;  that  equal  in  virtue  to  his  father 
was  he  l  who,  when  importuned,  accepted  the  guid- 
ance of  the  empire  which  he  had  often  refused  ;  that 
thou,  Livia,  wert  the  Vesta  of  pure  matrons,  it  is 
uncertain  whether  more  worthy  of  thy  son  or  thy 
husband  ;  that  there  were  two  sons,2  strong  supports 
of  their  father,  who  have  given  sure  proofs  of  their 
spirit. 

33  When  I  read  all  this,  written  not  in  the  language 
of  my  native  Muse,  and  the  last  page  felt  the  touch 
of  my  fingers,  all  moved  their  heads  and  their  full 
quivers,  and  there  was  a  long  murmur  on  the  lips  of 
the  Getae.  And  one  of  them  said,  "  Since  you  write 
this  about  Caesar,  it  were  fitting  that  you  be  restored 
by  Caesar's  command."  He  said  this,  yes,  but, 
Carus,  already  the  sixth  winter  sees  me  banished 
beneath  the  icy  pole.  My  verse  avails  me  naught ; 
my  verse  once  wrought  me  harm  and  was  the  first 
cause  of  this  wretched  exile.  But  do  you,  by  the 
common  pledges  of  our  sacred  calling,  by  the  name 
of  friendship  which  is  not  cheap  in  your  eyes — so 
may  Gerrnanicus  lead  the  enemy  captive  in  Latin 
chains  and  provide  a  subject  for  your  abilities  ;  so 

477 


OVID 

sic  valeant  pueri,  votum  commune  dec-rum, 

quos  laus  formandos  est  tibi  magna  datos), 
quanta  potes,  praebe  nostrae  momenta l  saluti, 
50      quae  nisi  mutato  nulla  futura  loco  est. 

XIV. 

Haec  tibi  mittuntur,  quern  sum  modo  carmine  questus 

non  aptum  numeris  nomen  habere  meis, 
in  quibus,  excepto  quod  adhuc  utcumque  valemus, 

nil,  me  praeterea  quod  iuvet,  invenies. 
5  ipsa  quoque  est  invisa  salus,  suntque  ultima  vota 

quolibet  ex  istis  scilicet  ire  locis. 
nulla  mini  cura  est,  terra  quo  mittar  2  ab  ista, 

hac  quia,  quam  video,  gratior  omnis  erit. 
in  medias  Syrtes,  mediam  mea  vela  Charybdin 
10      mittite,  praesenti  dum  careamus  humo. 

Styx  quoque,  si  quid  ea  est,  bene  commutabitur 

Histro, 

siquid  et  inferius  quam  Styga  mundus  habet. 
gramina  cultus  ager,  frigus  minus  odit  hirundo, 

proxima  Marticolis  quam  loca  Naso  Getis. 
15  talia  suscensent3  propter  mihi  verba  Tomitae, 

iraque  carminibus  publica  mota  meis. 
ergo  ego  cessabo  numquam  per  carmina  laedi, 

plectar  et  incauto  semper  ab  ingenio  ? 
ergo  ego,  ne  scribam,  digitos  incidere  cunctor, 
20      telaque  adhuc  demens,  quae  nocuere,  sequor  ? 
ad  veteres  scopulos  iterum  devertor4  et  illas, 
in  quibus  offendit  naufraga  puppis,  aquas  ? 

1  monimenta  corr.  f  2  muter 

*  succensent  4  devertar 

1  Probably  the  sons  of  Germanicus.          a  Ex  P.  iv.  12. 

478 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  XITI.  47— xiv.  22 

may  the  youths 1  be  well,  the  source  of  universal 
prayers  to  the  gods,  whose  training  to  your  great 
praise  has  been  made  your  trust— do  you  to  your 
utmost  power  advance  that  weal  of  mine  which  I 
shall  never  have,  unless  the  place  be  changed. 


XIV.  To  TUTICANUS 

These  words  are  sent  to  you  whose  name  but 
recently  I  complained  in  verse  2  was  not  suited  to  my 
metre  :  here — except  that  I  am  still  in  some  sort 
well — you  will  find  nothing  else  that  brings  me 
pleasure.  My  very  health  is  hateful  to  me,  and  'tis 
my  final  prayer  to  go  anywhere,  be  it  only  from  this 
place.  I  care  not  whither  I  am  sent  from  such  a 
land,  because  any  land  will  please  me  better  than 
this  upon  which  I  look.  Cause  me  to  sail  to  the 
midst  of  the  Syrtes,  or  Charybdis,  provided  I  escape 
this  present  soil.  Even  the  Styx,  if  such  thing  there 
be,  will  be  well  exchanged  for  the  Hister,  or  what-* 
ever  the  world  has  that  is  lower  than  the  Styx.  The 
tilled  field  feels  less  hate  for  the  grass,  the  swallow 
for  the  cold,  than  Naso  hates  the  region  near  the 
war-loving  Getae. 

15  For  such  words  the  anger  of  the  Tomitae  rises 
against  me,  the  wrath  of  the  town  is  stirred  by  my 
verse.  Shall  I  then  never  cease  to  be  injured  by  verse, 
shall  I  always  suffer  from  my  indiscreet  talent  ?  Do  I 
then  hesitate  to  cut  my  fingers  that  I  may  not  write, 
do  I  still  in  madness  trail  after  the  weapons  which 
have  harmed  me  ?  Am  I  being  driven  once  more 
upon  the  old  reef  and  into  those  waters  in  which  my 

479 


OVID 

sed  nihil  admisi,  nulla  est  mea  culpa,  Tomitae, 
quos  ego,  cum  loca  sim  vestra  perosus,  amo. 
25  quilibet  excutiat  nostri  monimenta  laboris  : 

littera  de  vobis  est  mea  questa  nihil. 
frigus  et  incursus  omni  de  parte  timendos 

et  quod  pulsetur  murus  ab  hoste  queror. 
in  loca,  non  homines,  verissima  crimina  dixi. 
30      culpatis  vestrum  vos  quoque  saepe  solum. 
esset  perpetuo  sua  quam  vitabilis  Ascra, 
ausa  est  agricolae  Musa  docere  senis  : 
et  fuerat  genitus  terra,  qui  scripsit,  in  ilia, 

intumuit  vati  nee  tarn  en  Ascra  suo. 
35  quis  patriam  sollerte  magis  dilexit  Ulixe  ? 

hoc  tamen  asperitas  indice  docta l  loci  est. 
non  loca,  sed  mores  scriptis  vexavit  ainaris 

Scepsius  Ausonios,  actaque  Roma  rea  est : 
falsa  tamen  passa  est  aequa  convicia  mente, 
40      obfuit  auctori  nee  fera  lingua  suo. 

at  malus  interpres  populi  mihi  concitat  iram 
inque  novum  crimen  carmina  nostra  vocat. 
tarn  felix  utinam  quam  pectore  candidus  esscm  ! 

extat  adhuc  nemo  saucius  ore  meo. 
45  adde  quod  Illyrica  si  iam  pice  nigrior  essem, 

non  mordenda  mihi  turba  ndelis  erat. 
molliter  a  vobis  mea  sors  excepta,  Tomitae, 

tarn  mites  Graios  indicat  esse  viros. 
gens  mea  Paeligni  regioque  domestica  Sulmo 
60      non  potuit  nostris  lenior  esse  malis. 

quern  vix  incolumi  cuiquam  salvoque  daretis, 
is  datus  a  vobis  est  mihi  nuper  honor. 

1  dicta  nota  G~ 

1  Hesiod.  2  Metrodorus. 

8  Niger  means  here  *'  slanderous."  4  i.e.  unexiled. 

480 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  xiv.  23-52 

bark  was  wrecked  ?  But  I  have  committed  no  crime, 
1  am  not  at  fault,  Tomitae,  for  you  I  esteem,  though 
1  detest  your  land.  Let  anyone  you  will  examine 
the  memorials  of  my  toil,  my  letters  have  uttered  no 
complaints  about  you.  Of  the  cold,  of  the  raids  to 
be  feared  from  every  side,  of  the  assaults  by  the 
enemy  upon  the  wall  I  complain.  Against  the  land, 
not  the  people,  I  have  uttered  true  charges  ;  even 
you  often  criticize  your  own  soil.  How  his  own 
Ascra  was  constantly  to  be  avoided  the  old  farmer 
poet 1  dared  to  sing,  and  he  who  wrote  had  been 
born  in  that  land,  yet  Ascra  grew  not  angry  with  her 
bard.  Who  loved  his  native  land  more  than  the 
wily  Ulysses  ?  Yet  its  roughness  has  been  learned 
through  his  own  evidence.  Not  the  land,  but  the 
ways  of  Ausonia  were  attacked  in  bitter  writing  by 
the  Scepsian,2  and  Rome  was  indicted,  yet  she  bore 
the  false  abuse  calmly,  and  the  author's  wild  tongue 
did  him  no  harm.  But  against  me  a  perverse  inter- 
preter rouses  the  popular  wrath,  bringing  a  new 
charge  against  my  verse.  Would  I  were  as  happy 
as  my  heart  is  clean  !  Nobody  to  this  day  lives  whom 
my  lips  have  wounded.  And  besides  if  I  were  now 
blacker3  than  Illyrian  tar,  a  loyal  people  would  not 
be  attacked  by  me.  Your  gentle  harbouring  of  my 
fate,  Tomitae,  shows  how  kindly  are  men  of  Grecian 
stock.  My  own  people,  the  Paeligni,  my  home 
country  of  Sulmo  could  not  have  been  gentler  to  my 
woes.  An  honour  which  you  would  scarcely  grant 
to  one  who  was  without  blemish  4  and  secure,  that 
you  have  recently  granted  to  me  :  I  am  as  yet  the 

2 1  481 


OVID 

solus  adhuc  ego  sum  vestris  inmunis  in  oris, 

exceptis,  siqui  munera  legis  habent. 
65  tempora  sacrata  mea  sunt  velata  corona, 

publicus  invito  quam  favor  inposuit. 
quam  grata  est  igitur  Latonae  Delia  tellus, 

erranti  tutum  quae  dedit  una  locum, 
tarn  mihi  cara  Tomis,  patria  quae  sede  fugatis 
60      tempus  ad  hoc  nobis  hospita  fida  manet. 
di  modo  fecissent,  placidae  spem  posset  babere 

pads,  et  a  gelido  longius  axe  foret. 


XV. 

Siquis  adhuc  usquam  nostri  non  inmemor  extat, 

quidve  relegatus  Naso,  requirit,  agam  : 
Caesaribus  vitam,  Sexto  debere  salutern 

me  sciat.     a  superis  hie  mihi  primus  crit. 
5  tempora  nam  miserae  complectar  ut  omnia  vitae, 

a  meritis  eius  pars  mihi  nulla  vacat. 
quae  numero  tot  sunt,  quot  in  horto  fertilis  arvi 

Punica  sub  lento  cortice  graria  rubent, 
Africa  quot  segetes,  quot  Tmolia  terra  racemos, 
10      quot  Sicyon  bacas,  quot  parit  Hybla  favos. 
confiteor  :  testere  licet,    signate  Quirites  ! 

nil  opus  est  legum  viribus,  ipse  loquor. 
inter  opes  et  me,  parvam  rein,  pone  paternas  : 

pars  ego  sum  census  quantulacumque  tui. 
15  quam  tua  Trinacria  est  regnataque  terra  Philippe, 

quam  domus  Augusto  continuata  foro, 

1  i.e.  from  taxes.     It  is  not  known  who  were  exempted 
besides  Ovid  or  what  imposts  are  meant. 

2  Lydia.  3  Sicilian. 
*  i.e.  in  Macedonia. 

482 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  xiv.  53— xv.  16 

only  one  immune l  upon  your  shores,  those  only 
excepted  who  have  the  boon  by  law.  My  brow  has 
been  veiled  with  a  sacred  chaplet  which  the  popular 
favour  placed  there  all  against  my  will.  Wherefore 
dear  as  is  to  Latona  the  land  of  Delos,  which  alone 
offered  her  a  safe  place  in  her  wandering,  so  dear  is 
Tomis  to  me  ;  to  me  exiled  from  my  native  abode  it 
remains  hospitable  and  loyal  to  the  present  time. 
Would  that  the  gods  had  only  made  it  possible  for 
it  to  have  the  hope  of  calm  peace  and  to  be  farther 
away  from  the  icy  pole  ! 


XV.  To  SEXTUS  POMPEIUS 

If  there  be  still  anywhere  one  who  has  not  for- 
gotten me  or  who  asks  how  exiled  Naso  fares,  let  him 
know  that  I  owe  my  life  to  the  Caesars,  my  well- 
being  to  Sextus.  After  those  above  he  in  my  eyes 
shall  stand  first.  For  though  I  should  include  all  the 
hours  of  my  wrretched  life,  none  is  lacking  in  services 
from  him.  These  are  as  many  as  in  the  orchard  of  a 
fertile  farm  are  the  seeds  of  the  pomegranate,  red 
beneath  their  slow-growing  husk,  as  the  grain  of 
Africa,  as  the  grape  clusters  of  the  Tmolian  land,2 
as  the  olives  of  Sicyon,  or  the  honey-cells  of  Hybla. 
This  is  my  confession  ;  you  may  witness  it  ;  put 
your  seal  upon  it,  Quirites.  It  needs  not  the  force 
of  the  law  ;  I  myself  declare  it.  Set  me  too,  an 
humble  chattel,  amongst  your  inherited  wealth  ;  I 
am  a  part,  no  matter  how  small,  of  your  estate.  As 
Trinacrian  3  lands  are  yours  or  those  once  ruled  over 
by  Philip,4  as  the  home  next  the  forum  of  Augustus, 

483 


OVID 

quam  tua,  rus  oculis  domini,  Campania,  gratum, 

quaeque  relicta  tibi,  Sexte,  vel  empta  tenes  : 
tarn  tuus  en  ego  sum,  cuius  te  munere  tristi 
20     non  potes  in  Ponto  dicer e  habere  nihil. 
atque  utinam  possis,  et  detur  amicius  arvum, 

remque  tuam  ponas  in  meliore  loco  ! 
quod  quoniam  in  dis  est,  tempta  lenire  precando 

numina,  perpetua  quae  pietate  colis. 
25  erroris  nam  tu  vix  est  discernere  nostri 

sis  argumentum  maius  an  auxilium. 
nee  dubitans  oro  :  sed  flumine  saepe  secundo 

augetur  remis  cursus  euntis  aquae, 
et  pudet  et  metuo  semperque  eademque  precari, 
30     ne  subeant  animo  taedia  iusta  tuo. 

verum  quid  faciam  ?  res  inmoderata  cupido  est. 

da  veniam  vitio,  mitis  amice,  meo. 
scribere  saepe  aliud  cupiens  delabor  eodem  : 

ipsa  locum  per  se  littera  nostra  rogat. 
35  seu  tamen  effectus  habitura  est  gratia,  seu  me 

dura  iubet  gelido  Parca  sub  axe  mori, 
semper  inoblita  repetam  tua  munera  mente, 

et  mea  me  tellus  audiet  esse  tuum. 
audiet  et  caelo  posita  est  quaecumque  sub  ullo 
40      (transit  nostra  feros  si  modo  Musa  Getas) 
teque  meae  causam  servatoremque  salutis, 

meque  tuum  libra  norit  et  aere  minus. 

XVI. 

Invide,  quid  laceras  Nasonis  carmina  rapti  ? 
non  solet  ingeniis  summa  nocere  dies, 

1  Apparently   Pompey  could   prove   (argumentum)   thi 
"  error  "  which  Ovid  regarded  as  the  beginning  of  all  his  woe 

484- 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  xv.  17— xvi.  2 

as  your  Campanian  lands,  an  estate  dear  to  your 
eyes,  or  whatever  you  hold  by  inheritance,  Sextus, 
or  by  purchase,  so  am  I  yours,  and  by  reason  of  this 
sad  gift  you  cannot  say  that  you  own  naught  in  the 
Pontus.  Would  that  you  could  and  that  a  more 
pleasant  estate  might  be  given  you,  that  you  might 
establish  your  property  in  a  better  place  !  Since  this 
rests  with  the  gods,  try  to  soften  by  prayer  those 
deities  whom  you  worship  with  constant  devotion. 
For  'tis  hard  to  distinguish  whether  you  are  more  the 
proof  of  my  mistake  or  the  relief.1 

27  Nor  do  I  plead  because  I  doubt ;  but  oft  adown 
the  stream  the  oars  hasten  the  voyage  over  the  flowing 
waters.  I  feel  shame  and  apprehension  always  to  be 
making  the  same  request,  lest  your  heart  grow  justly 
weary.  But  what  am  I  to  do  ?  My  desire  is 
measureless.  Pardon  my  fault,  gentle  friend. 
Though  I  often  wish  to  write  in  a  different  vein,  I 
pass  imperceptibly  to  the  same  theme  ;  my  very 
letters  of  their  own  accord  seek  the  opportunity. 
Yet  whether  your  influence  shall  win  its  end  or 
whether  a  cruel  fate  bids  me  die  beneath  the  freezing 
pole,  I  shall  always  recall  your  services  with  un- 
forgetting  heart  and  my  land  shall  hear  that  I  belong 
to  you.  It  shall  be  heard  by  every  land  under  any 
sky — if  only  my  Muse  passes  the  confines  of  the  wild 
Getae — that  you  are  the  cause  and  saviour  of  my 
weal ;  that  I  am  yours  almost  as  if  the  scales  and 
bronze  had  bought  me. 

XVI.  To  AN  ENEMY 

Jealous  man,  why  do  you  wound  the  verse  of 
ravished  Naso  ?  The  final  day  is  not  wont  to  injure 

485 


OVID 

famaque  post  cineres  maior  venit.    et  mihi  nomen 

turn  quoque,  cum  vivis  adnumerarer,  erat : 
5  cumque  foret  Marsus  magnique  Rabinus  oris 

Iliacusque  Macer  sidereusque  Pedo  ; 
et,  qui  lunonem  laesisset  in  Hercule,  Carus, 

lunonis  si  iam  non  gener  ille  foret ; 
quique  dedit  Latio  carmen  regale  Severus, 
10      et  cum  subtili  Priscus  uterque  Numa  ; 

quique  vel  imparibus  numeris,  Montane,  vel  aequis 

sufficis,  et  gemino  carmine  nomen  babes  ; 
et  qui  Penelopae  rescribere  iussit  Ulixen 

errantem  saevo  per  duo  lustra  mari, 
15  quique  suam  Troesmin l  imperfectumque  dierum 

deseruit  celeri  morte  Sabinus  opus  ; 
ingeniique  sui  dictus  cognomine  Largus, 

Gallica  qui  Phrygium  duxit  in  arva  senem  ; 
quique  canit  domito  Camerinus  ab  Hectore  Troiam  : 
20      quique  sua  nomen  Phyllide  Tuscus  habet ; 
velivolique  maris  vates,  cui  credere  posses 

carmina  caeruleos  composuisse  deos  ; 
quique  acies  Libycas  Romanaque  proelia  dixit ; 

et  Marius  scripti  dexter  in  omne  genus  ; 
25  Trinacriusque  suae  Perseidos  auctor,  et  auctor 

Tantalidae  reducis  Tyndaridosque  Lupus  ; 
et  qui  Maeoniam  Phaeacida 2  vertit,  et  une  3 
Pindaricae  fidicen  tu  quoque,  Rufe,  lyrae  ; 
Musaque  Turrani  tragicis  innixa  cothurnis  ; 
30      et  tua  cum  socco  Musa,  Melisse,  levi 4  ; 

1  trisonem  vel  troadem  vel  troezen  etc.  corr.  Ehwald 

8  ecateida  vel  aeacida 

8  uni  vel  una 

4  levis 

486 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  xvi.  3-30 

genius,  and  fame  is  greater  after  one  is  ashes.  I  too 
had  a  name  even  at  the  time  when  I  was  counted 
with  the  living,  when  Marsus1  lived  and  Rabirius 
of  the  mighty  voice,  the  Ilian  Macer,  and  Pedo 
towering  to  the  stars,  and  Carus,  who  in  his  Hercules 
had  angered  Juno  if  that  hero  were  not  already  Juno's 
son-in-law  ;  and  he  who  gave  to  Latium  a  regal 
poem,  Severus,  and  both  Prisci  together  with  tasteful 
Numa ;  and  thou,  Montanus,  master  of  metres 
whether  even  or  uneven,  whose  fame  rests  upon  two 
kinds  of  verse,  and  he  who  bade  Ulysses  write  home 
to  Penelope  as  he  wandered  for  two  lustra  over 
the  savage  sea,  Sabinus,  who  in  untimely  death 
abandoned  his  Troesmis,2  the  uncompleted  work  of 
many  days  ;  Largus,  called  by  the  surname  of  his  own 
genius,  who  guided  the  aged  Phrygian  to  the  fields 
of  Gaul  ;  and  Camerinus  who  sings  of  Troy  after  the 
vanquishing  of  Hector  ;  and  Tuscus,  renowned  for 
his  Phyllis  ;  the  bard  3  of  the  sail-covered  sea,  whose 
verse  one  might  believe  composed  by  the  sea- 
coloured  gods  ;  and  he  who  sang  of  the  armies  of 
Libya  and  Rome's  battles  ;  and  Marius,  skilled  in 
every  style  of  composition,  and  Trinacrius  who  wrote 
of  the  Perseid  he  knew  so  well,  and  Lupus,  author  of 
the  homecoming  of  Tyndarus's  daughter  with  the 
scion  of  Tantalus  ;  and  he 4  who  translated  the 
Maeonian  Pkaeacis,  and  thou  too,  Rufus,  unique 
player  on  Pindar's  lyre ;  and  Turranius's  Muse 
wearing  the  tragic  buskin,  and  thine,  Melissus,  with 

1  For  information  concerning  the  poets  in  this  long  list 
see  Index. 

a  Possibly  an  epic  on  the  recovery  of  Troesmis,  cf.  iv.  9.  79. 
See  Index. 

8  The  poets  alluded  to  in  vv.  21-26  are  otherwise  unknown. 

4  Probably  Tuticanus  (Index). 

487 


OVID 

cum  Varius  Graccusque  darent  fera  dicta  tyrannis, 

Callimachi  Proculus  molle  teneret  iter, 
Tityron  antiquas  Passerque  rediret 1  ad  herbas 

aptaque  venanti  Grattius  arma  daret ; 
35  Naidas  a  Satyris  caneret  Fontanus  amatas, 

clauderet  imparibus  verba  Capella  modis  ; 
cumque  forent  alii,  quorum  mihi  cuncta  referre 

nomina  longa  mora  est,  carmina  vulgus  habet ; 
essent  et  iuvenes,  quorum  quod  inedita  cura  2  est, 
40      adpellandorum  nil  mihi  iuris  adest 

(te  tamen  in  turba  non  ausim,  Cotta,  silcre, 

Pieridum  lumen  praesidiumque  fori, 
maternos  Cottas  cui  Messallasque  paternos, 

Maximc,3  nobilitas  ingeminata  dedit) 
45  dicere  si  fas  est,  claro  mea  nomine  Musa 

atque  inter  tantos  quae  legeretur  erat. 
ergo  summotum  patria  proscindere,  Livor, 

desine,  neu  cineres  sparge,  cruente,  meos. 
omnia  perdidimus  :  tantummodo  vita  relicta  est, 
50      praebeat  ut  sensum  materiamque  mali. 

quid  iuvat  extinctos  ferrum  demittere  4  in  artus  ? 
non  habet  in  nobis  iam  nova  plaga  locum. 

J  Passerque  rediret]  et  erat  qui  pasceret  herbas 

8  causa  :  cura  r  8  maxima 

4  dimittere  corr.  Itali 


488 


EX  PONTO,  IV.  xvi.  31-52 

her  light  slippers.  While  Varius  and  Graccus 
furnished  cruel  words  to  tyrants,  Proculus  followed 
the  tender  path  of  Callimachus,  Passer1  returned  to 
Tityrus  and  the  familiar  meadows,  and  Grattius 
supplied  weapons  suited  to  the  hunter ;  while 
Fontanus  sang  of  Naiads  beloved  by  Satyrs,  while 
Capella  prisoned  words  in  unequal  measures  ;  and 
while  there  were  others  all  of  whose  names  it  were 
long  for  me  to  mention,  whose  songs  the  people 
possess  ;  while  there  were  youths  also  whose  work 
unpublished  gives  me  no  right  to  name  them — yet 
amid  the  throng,  of  thee,  Cotta  Maximus,  I  should 
not  venture  to  be  silent,  light  of  the  Pierians  and 
guardian  of  the  forum,  to  whom  a  twofold  noble 
lineage  has  given  on  thy  mother's  side  the  Cottas,  on 
the  father's  the  Messallas — my  Muse  was  famed,  if 
'tis  right  to  speak  thus,  and  she  was  one  who  was 
read  among  so  many  of  the  great. 

47  So,  Malice,  cease  to  tear  one  banished  from  his 
country  ;  scatter  not  my  ashes,  cruel  one  !  I  have 
lost  all ;  life  alone  remains,  to  give  me  the  conscious- 
ness and  the  substance  of  sorrow.  What  pleasure  to 
thee  to  drive  the  steel  into  limbs  already  dead  ? 
There  is  no  space  in  me  now  for  a  new  wound. 

1  Line  33  has  been  much  emended.  I  have  followed 
Nemethy  who  retains  the  reading  of  the  best  MSS.  and 
takes  Passer  as  a  poet's  name. 


489 


INDEX 

The  references  are  to  lines  of  the  Latin  text.  T.  =Tristia ;  P.  =Ex  Ponto ; 
fl.  =  floruit,  "flourished";  c.— circa,  "about,";  b.  =born;  t=died; 
n.  =  riote.  The  citations  are  complete  except  where  etc.  is  added.] 


Absyrtus.  Medea's  brother,  T.  iii. 
9.6 

Abydos,  a  town  on  the  Dardanelles, 
T.  i.  10.  28 

Accius  (Lucius),  a  Roman  poet, 
noted  especially  for  tragedy. 
Only  a  few  fragments  are  extant. 
Born  c.  170  B.C.  T.  ii.  359 

Achaei,  a  wild  tribe  dwelling  near 
the  Pontus,  P.  iv.  10.  27 

Achaemenides,  a  companion  of 
Ulysses  left  behind  in  Sicily, 
later  rescued  by  Aeneas,  P.  ii.  2.  25 

Achilles,  son  of  Peleus  and  grand- 
son of  Aeacus,  greatest  warrior 
among  the  Greeks  who  besieged 
Troy.  He  quarrelled  with  Aga- 
memnon who  had  forced  him 
to  give  up  Briseis  of  Lyrnesua, 
his  favourite  slave,  but  "allowed 
his  friend  Patroclus  to  wear  his 
armour  and  tight  the  Tiojans. 
He  slew  Hector  to  avenge  Patro- 
clus, but  yielded  his  body  to 
King  Priam  for  burial.  Achilles 
was  slain  by  an  arrow  which 
Apollo  guided  from  Paris'  bow. 
T.  i.  1.  100,  etc. 

Achivus,  Achaean,  i.e.  Grecian,  P. 
\.  4.  33 

A  con  tins,  lover  of  Cydippe.  He 
wrote  upon  an  apple  "I  swear 
by  Artemis  to  wed  Aeon  tins." 
Cydippe  picked  up  the  apple, 
read  the  words,  and  was  bound 
by  the  oath.  T.  iii.  10.  73 


Actaeon.     See  T.  ii.  105  f. 

Actaeus,  Attic,  P.  iv.  1.  31 

Actoridea,  grandson  of  Actor.  See 
Patroclus 

Admetus.    See  Alcestis 

Adrastus,  king  of  Argos,  P.  i. 
3.  79 

Aeacides,  grandson  of  Aeacus,  i.e. 
Achilles 

Aeetes,  father  of  Medea.    See  Medea 

Aegaeus,  the  sea  between  Greece 
and  Asia  Minor— as  far  south  as 
Crete 

Aegides,  son  of  Aegeus,  i.e.  Theseus 

Aegisos,  a  Moesian  town  (now 
Tuldza)  above  the  delta  of  the 
Danube,  P.  i.  8.  13 ;  iv.  7.  21,  53 

Aegisthus.     See  Clytaemestra 

Aegyptus.    See  Danaides 

Aeneades,  descendant  of  Aeneas, 
a  name  applied  to  members  of 
the  Julian  family,  especially  to 
Augustus,  P.  iii.  4.  84,  etc. 

Aeneas,  son  of  Anchises  and  Venus. 
He  escaped  from  Troy  with  his 
father  and  his  son  Ascanius 
and  settled  in  Latium.  From 
Ascanius  (under  the  name  of 
lulus)  the  Julian  family  claimed 
descent.  T.  i.  2.  7,  etc. 

Aeiieis,  the  Aeneid,  Virgil's  great 
epic  on  Aeneas.  T.  ii.  633 

Aeolus,  son  of  Hippotes  and  lord  of 
the  winds,  T.  i.  4.  17 

Aerope,  wife  of  Aireus.  She  was 
violated  by  her  brother-in-law 

491 


INDEX 


Thyestes.  When  Atreus  slew 
Aerope  together  with  Thyestes 
and  his  children,  the  sun  turned 
aside  in  horror  (T.  ii.  392). 
According  to  another  story 
Atreus  slew  Thyestes'  children 
and  served  them  to  him  at  a 
feast.  P.  i.  2. 119 

Aeson,  father  of  Jason,  P.  i.  4. 
23,  46 

Aesonides,  son  of  Aeson,  i.e.  Jason, 
P.  i.  4.  36 

Aethahs,  an  adj.  applied  to  Elba, 
the  Greek  AleaArj,  /'.  ii.  3.  84 

Aetna,  the  great  volcano  of  Sicily, 
T.  v.  2.  75 

Agamemnon,  king  of  Mycenae, 
leader  of  the  Greeks  at  Troy. 
See  Cly taemestra,  Orestes, 
Achillei.  T.  v.  6.  25,  etc. 

Agenor.    See  Phineus 

Agenorides,  son  of  Agenor,  i.e. 
Cadmus,  P.  i.  8.  77 

Agrius,  father  of  Thersites,  the 
ugliest  man  among  the  Greeks 
who  besieged  Troy,  P.  iii.  9.  9 

Ajax,  son  of  Telamon,  the  mightiest 
Greek  warrior  at  Troy  save  only 
Achilles,  P.  iv.  7.  41 

Albanus,  "Alban,"  from  Alba 
Longa,  a  town  on  the  Alban  Mount 
not  far  from  Rome,  founded  by 
Ascanius  (lulus),  P.  i.  8.  67 

Albinovanus,  probably  Albino- 
vanus  Pedo,  a  soldier,  who 
served  with  Germanicus  in 
Germany,  and  a  poet  be^t  known 
for  epigrams  (only  one  fragment 
of  his  work  is  extant),  P.  iv.  10 

Alcathous,  son  of  Pelops  and  king 
of  Megara,  T.  i.  10.  39 

Alcestis,  wife  of  Admetus.  She 
consented  to  die  in  her  husband's 
stead,  but  was  saved  by  Hercules. 
T.  v.  14.  87 ;  P.  iii.  1.  106 

Alcides,  Hercules  —  perhaps  the 
hero's  earliest  name 

Alcinous,  king  of  the  Phaeacians. 
He  entertained  Ulysses,  and  his 
orchards  were  famous,  P.  iv. 
2.  10 

Alcmene.  wife  of  Amphitryon.  She 
bore  Hercules  to  Jupiter,  who  in 
his  suit  of  her  had  caused  the 

492 


night  to  be  doubled  in  length. 

T.  ii.  402 
Alexandria,     capital     of     Egypt, 

founded  by  Alexander  the  Great, 

T.  i.  2.  79 
Althaea,  mother  of  Meleager.     She 

burned  the  brand  on  which  de- 
pended the  life  of  her  son  because 

he  had  slain  her  brother 
Amazons,  a  race  of  female  warriors, 

P.  iii.  1.  95 
Amor  (or  Cupido),  the  god  of  love, 

often  represented   as   a  winged 

boy,  T.  v.  1.  22  ;  P.  iii.  8.  9  ft'.,  etc. 
Amphiaraus,    one    of    the    seven 

heroes    who    attacked    Thebes. 

The    earth    yawned    apart    and 

engulfed  him  with  his  chariot. 

P.  iii.  I.  52 
Anacreon,   a    famous    Greek   lyric 

poet  of  Teos,  Ionia,  fl.  c.  509  B.C.; 

numerous  fragments,  T.  ii.  364 
Anapus,   a    Sicilian    river   flowing 

into  the    harbour   of   Syracuse, 

P.  ii.  10.  26 
Anchialus,  a  Greek  town  on  the 

Thracian  coast  of  the  Black  Sea, 

south  of  Tomis,  T.  i.  10.  36 
Anchises,    father    (by    Venus)    of 

Aeneas,     who    bore    him    from 

burning  Troy  upon  his  shoulders, 

T.  ii.  299  ;  P.  i.  1.  88 
Andromache,  daughter  of  Eetion, 

king  of  Cilician  Thebes  ;   wife  of 

Hector 
Andromeda,  daughter  of  Cepheus, 

Ethiopian     king;     rescued     by 

Perseus  from  a  dragon  ;   wife  of 

Perseus,  T.  ii.  401 
Anser,  an  Augustan    erotic  poet. 

T.  ii.  435 
Autenor,  a  Trojan  noble,  founder 

of  Padua,  P.  iv.  16.  18 
Antigon^,    daughter    of    Oedipus. 

She  performed  burial  rites  for  her 

brother  Polynices  although  King 

Creon  had  forbidden  it  because 

Polynices  had  attacked  his  native 

city  Thebes.     T.  iii.  8.  67 
Antilochus,  son  of  Nestor  and  the 

closest  friend  (after  Patroclus)  of 

Achilles,  P.  ii.  4.  22 
Antimachus,  an  epic  and  elegiac 

poet   of  Colophon  (or   Claros), 


INDEX 


fl.  c.  400  B.C.  His  most  famous 
work,  written  to  console  himself 
f>r  the  loss  of  his  wife,  was 
the  Lyde\  meagre  fragments. 
T.  i.  6.  1 

Antiphates,  king  of  the  Laestry- 
gomans  who  ate  human  flesh, 
P.  ii.  2.  114,  etc. 

Autonius  (Marcus),  the  triumvir, 
defeated  by  Augustus  at  Actiuin, 
P.  i.  1.  23 

Anytus,  one  of  the  accusers  of 
Socrates,  T.  v.  12.  12 

Aonia,  originally  a  district  of 
Boeotia  next  Phocis,  then  a 
poetic  term  for  all  Boeotia. 
Helicon  and  the  Muses  are  often 
called  "Aonian,"  T.  iv.  10.  89, 
etc. 

Apelles,  the  famous  painter  of  Cos, 
4th  cent.  B.C.,  who  depicted 
Venus  wringing  the  sea  water 
from  her  hair,  P.  iv.  1.  29 

Apollo  (or  Phoebus),  god  of  the 
sun,  of  poetry,  etc.,  7'.  i.  2.  r>,  etc. 

Appia  (via),  the  first  great  Roman 
road — from  Rome  to  Capua,  P .  i. 

8.  68 

Aquilo,  the  Latin  name  for  Boreas, 
the  north  wind,  T.  i.  11.  19,  etc. 

Arctos,  the  Great  Bear  (Ursa 
Maior),  a  constellation  which 
never  sets,  T.  i.  2.  29,  etc. 

Arcturus,  guardian  of  ths  Bear,  a 
stormy  constellation,  P.  ii.  7.  58 

Arcthusa,  a  nymph  beloved  by  the 
river  god  Alpheus  in  Elis 
Changed  into  a  spring  she  was 
pursued  by  the  god  beneath  the 
sea  to  Sicily.  P.  ii.  10.  27 

Argo,  Jason's  ship,  built  by  Athene's 
aid,  T.  ii.  439 

Argolicus,  properly  "Argive,"  but 
a  general  term  for  "Greek,"  T.  i. 

9.  27,  etc. 

Aiiadne,  daughter  of  Minos,  king 
of  Crete.  She  aided  Theseus  to 
penetrate  the  labyrinth  and  slay 
the  Minotaur,  then  fled  with  him 
but  was  abandoned  on  the  Isle 
of  T)ia  and  wedded  by  Bacchus. 
The  god  placed  her  crown  in 
he  wen  as  a  constellation- 
Ariadne's  orowii,  T.  v.  3.  42 


Aristaeus,  son  of  Apollo,  patron  of 
dairying,  bee  culture,  etc.,  P.  iv. 
2.  9 

Aristarchus,  the  famous  Homeric 
critic  of  Alexandria,  2nd  cent. 
B.C.,  P.  Hi.  9.  24 

Anstides  (1)  the  famous  Athenian 
statesman,  exiled  482  EC.,  P.  i. 
8.  71.  (2)  The  author  of  the 
Milesian  Tales ;  very  meagre 
fragments  of  Sisenna's  Latin 
translation  survive,  T.  ii.  418, 
443 

Ars,  Ovid's  Ars  amitoria  (Art  of 
Love),  See  In  trod.  p.  xix 

A^cra,  a  Boeotian  town,  where 
He^iod  was  born,  P.  iv.  14.  81 

Atalanta  (1)  daughter  of  Schoeneus, 
won  by  Hippomenes  who  defeated 
her  in  a  foot-race  by  the  device 
of  rolling  golden  apples  in  her 
path,  T.  ii.  399.  (2)  Daughter  ot 
Ta>os,  an  Arcadian  huntress  who 
disdained  love,  but  was  won  by 
Milanion  after  many  hardships 

Athos,  a  lofty  promontory  of  the 
Macedonian  Chalcidice,  P.  i.  5.  22 

Atia  (minor),  aunt  of  Augustus  and 
wife  of  L.  Marcius  Philippus.  P. 
i.  2.  139 

Atlantis,  "  Atlantian,"  an  epithet 
of  the  Great  Bear  because  Calhsto 
(the  Great  Bear)  was  descended 
from  Atlas,  T.  i.  11.  15 

Atreus,  father  of  Agamemnon  and 
Menelaus,  P.  i.  2.  119.  See 
Aerope 

Atticus,  a  friend  to  whom  Ovid 
addresses  P.  ii.  4  and  ii.  7 ; 
otherwise  unknown 

Augustus,  the  Emperor  Augustus 
Caesar,  T.  i.  2.  102,  etc.  ;  Ovid's 
lost  poem  on  A.'s  apotheosis,  P. 
iv.  6  18,  iv.  9.  181 ;  Getic  poem 
on  A.,  P.  iv.  18.  19.  See  Introd. 
p.  xxviii.  Tiberius  also  was  called 
Augustus,  P.  iv.  9.  70,  etc. 

Aurelia,  wife  of  M.  Valerius 
Corvinus  Messalla,  P.  ii.  3.  98 

Ausonia,  originally  a  Greek  name 
for  the  land  of  the  Auruncl 
(Auo-oj'e?) ;  later  a  poetic  term  for 
Latium  or  even  Italy,  T.  i.  2. 
92,  etc. 

493 


INDEX 


Auster,  the  south  wind.  See  Notus. 

T.  i.  10.  33,  etc. 
Automedon,     the     charioteer     of 

Achilles,  T.  v.  6.  10 
Axenus,    "inhospitable,"   an    adj. 

applied  to  the  Black  Sea(Pontus), 

T.  iv.  4.  56 

Babylon,  P.  ii.  4.  27 

Bacche,  a  Bacchante,  T.  iv.  1.  41, 
etc. 

Bacchus  (or  Liber,  Lyaeus,  etc.), 
god  of  the  vine,  poetry,  etc.,  T. 
i.  10.  38,  etc. 

Ball  games,  T.  ii.  485 

Bassus,  an  iambic  poet,  member  of 
Ov  id's  circle  (T.  iv.  10.  47) ;  othei  - 
wiseunknown,  although  attempts 
have  been  made  to  identify  him 
with  Bassus  (Propert.  i.  4),  01 
with  Bassus  (Seneca,  Controllers. 
x.  Praefat.  xii.) 

Basternae,  a  German  (or  Celtic?) 
people  dwelling,  in  Ovid's  time, 
along  the  Danube  from  the 
Carpathians  to  the  Black  Sea,  T. 
ii.  198 

Bato,  a  Dalmatian  chief  who  fought 
against  Home,  A.D.  6-9.  He 
obtained  immunity  and  was 
allowed  to  live  at  Ravenna.  P.  11. 
1.  46 

Battiades,  "descendant  of  Battus," 
i.e.  Callimachus,  T.  n.  367,  etc. 

Behdes,  T.  iii.  1 .  62.    See  Danaides 

Bellerophon,  entertained  b) 
Pioetus,  king  of  Argos  ;  rejected 
the  advances  of  Stheneboea,  his 
hostess,  who  in  ie\enge  accused 
him.  The  king  gave  him  ovei 
to  lobates  to  slay,  but  the  latter 
not  daring  to  slay  him  forced 
him  to  tight  the  fire-breathing 
Chimaera  which  he  succeeded  in 
killing.  T.  n.  897 

Bessi,  a Thracian  people  d  welling  on 
the  Upper  Hebi  us,  T.  iii  10. 5,  et  r. 

Birthday,  Ovid's  (at  Tom  is),  £.  in. 
13 ;  iv.  10.  11  ;  his  wife's,  T.  v.  5 

Bistonii,  a  Thracian  people  of  the 
Aegean  coast.  Ovid  uses  the 
name  as  equivalent  to  "Thraci- 
aris '' ;  adj.  Bistonius,  Bistonis. 
T.  i.  10.  23,  etc. 

494. 


Bittis,  the  beloved,  probably  the 
wife,  of  Philetas,  T.  i.  (i.  2  ;  P. 
iii.  1.  58 

Book,  description  of  a  Roman  book, 
T.  i.  1.  1  ff.  n.,  106  if.  ;  iii.  1. 
13ft'. 

Bootes,  Ox- Driver,  the  star  which 
"drives"  the  seven  oxen  of  the 
Wain  (Great  Bear),  later  called 
Arcturus 

Boreas,  the  north  wind,  adj.  Boreus, 
T.  i.  2.  29,  etc. 

Borysthenes,  a  river  flowing  into 
the  Black  Sea— the  Dnieper,  P. 
iv.  10.  53 

Bosporus,  T.  ii.  298 ;  cf.  ui.  4.  49 

Briseis.     Bee  Achilles 

Brutus,  (1)  M.  Junms,  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  conspiracy  against 
Julius  Caesar,  and  a  writer  on 
philosophy  and  rhetoric,  P.  i.  1. 
24  ;  (2)  A  friend  whom  Ovid 
addresses,  P.  i.  1,  iii.  9,  iv.  6.  He 
acted  as  Ovid's  editor ;  not  other- 
wise known.  See  Introd.  p.  xv 

Busiris,  an  Egyptian  king  who 
sacrificed  strangers